Izzy Young, who owned the Folklore Center in Greenwich Village during the height of the folk revival, is famous for having nurtured a young Bob Dylan when he first arrived in New York City. Mr. Dylan would hang around the back of Mr. Youngâs store on Macdougal Street, listening to records and writing songs, and it was Mr. Young who organized Mr. Dylanâs first concert in the city in 1961.
That relationship soured after Dylan went electric in 1965 and folk purists accused him of selling out. Now Mr. Young, 85, is the one selling something: a manuscript of an unpublished song Mr. Dylan gave him in 1963 while he was working on the groundbreaking album âThe Freewheelinâ Bob Dylan.â Christieâs auction house said the manuscript will be sold in London on June 26, as part of the houseâs Pop Culture Sale.
âThis unreleased song, written against the background of the threat of nuclear warfare, is not only a beautiful example of Dylanâs songwriting, representing his political protest activities during that era but is also a potent symbol of the anxieties of the American public in the early 1960s,â wrote Nicolette Tomkinson, a director at Christieâs, in a description of the sale.
Mr. Young said in a statement that he had asked Mr. Dylan to contribute to a book of songs against the atomic bomb in 1963. The next day, the songwriter gave him a manuscript for âGo Away You Bomb.â
It was one of two Dylan manuscripts Mr. Young has held on to for five decades, even after he moved to Stockholm in the 1970s and opened another Folklore Center there. The other manuscript is for âTalking Folklore Center,â the 1962 Dylan song about Mr. Youngâs Greenwich Village store.
âI have never sold anything important to me until now and the funds raised will help to keep the Folklore Center in Stockholm going,â Mr. Young said.
Composed at the height of Mr. Dylanâs protest-song period, the lyrics of âGo Away You Bombâ are full of his typical word play: âI hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned anâ man-handled/Anâ you might be miss-made anâ miss-owned anâ miss- handled anâ miss-used/Anâ I hate you cause you could drop on me by accident anâ kill me.â
According to Mr. Dylanâs autobiography, âChronicles,â Mr. Youngâs Folklore Center was also where Mr. Dylan first met Dave Van Ronk, the folk singer who gave him an important break by inviting him to join him onstage at the Gaslight.
Ms. Tomkinson estimated the sheet of typed lyrics would sell for between $38,000 and $54,000.