The earliest known poem of Bob Dylan’s, written when he was 16 at a Jewish summer camp, was up for auction at Christie’s when someone pointed out that they aren’t his words his at all. Instead, Dylan had rewritten the lyrics (with a few variations) to the Hank Snow song “Little Buddy.” Although it is now clear that Bob Dylan (then Robert Zimmerman) plagiarized, Christie’s is still auctioning off the item as his earliest known handwritten poem in their Pop Culture auction.

Christie’s announced on Tuesday the sale of the hand-written poem believed to have been written in 1957 when Dylan was 16 and away at Jewish camp.

But Christie’s failed to detect that the words, with a few minor variations, matched those of a song previously recorded by Snow, who died in 1999 at age 85.

Reuters discovered the lyrics matched the Snow song when alerted by a reader. Reuters then informed the auction house.

“Additional information has come to our attention about the handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written when he was 16, entitled ‘Little Buddy.’ The words are in fact a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song,” Christie’s said in a statement.

“This still remains among the earliest known handwritten lyrics of Bob Dylan and Christie’s is pleased to offer them in our Pop Culture auction on June 23.”

The manuscript had been expected to fetch $10,000 to $15,000.

Christie’s said Dylan, still using his given name Robert Zimmerman, signed the piece Bobby Zimmerman and submitted it to the Herzl Camp newspaper. The editor of the paper kept it for more than 50 years and recently donated it to Herzl Camp, a Jewish camp in Wisconsin, Christie’s said.

Written in blue ink on both sides of a single sheet of paper, it reads in part, “But I’ll meet my precious buddy up in the sky/ By a tiny narrow grave/ Where the willows sadly wave.” Those words and others match the Snow song.

[from MSNBC via Gossip Rocks]

Although it was supposed to go for up to $15,000 when it was still thought to be his first original poem, I can’t imagine that it would go for much less. It’s still Bob Dylan memorabilia. But it amazes me that it took someone that long to figure it out. Hank Snow had over 70 singles on the Billboard charts from 1950 to 1980, and you’d think someone would know the song.

At least Bob Dylan proved himself later on, and didn’t use plagiarized work as proof he was a changed man (or woman) the way Paris did.