Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics to the song The Times They Are A-Changin' will be offered at auction in New York on Dec. 10. (Sotheby's/Associated Press) Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics to his folk protest anthem The Times They Are A-Changin' — scrawled on a weathered sheet of notebook paper — will be offered at a New York auction next month.

Sotheby's will offer the rare, signed document as part of its upcoming books and manuscripts sale on Dec. 10.

The lightly discoloured paper — which features Dylan's printed verses in slightly smudged pencil on a creased, unruled sheet — is expected to sell for between $200,000 to $300,000 US.

The document's reverse includes a lyrical fragment from the song North Country Blues.

According to Sotheby's, the singer-songwriter gave the sheet to a friend and fellow folksinger named Kevin Krown after committing the lyrics to memory. The document then passed to Mac and Eve MacKenzie, at whose New York apartment Dylan frequently stayed throughout 1960 and 1961.

The song became the title track for Dylan's third studio album, 1964's politically charged, socially relevant The Times They Are A-Changin', and would eventually become one of Dylan's most famous songs.

It has been used in film and advertisements in recent years and Dylan performed a plaintive version at the White House in February during a special concert titled Songs of the Civil Rights Movement.

With files from The Associated Press