Lot #3241

Leonard Cohen Handwritten Poetry Manuscript

Description

Handwritten draft of a 1960s New York poem by Leonard Cohen, published in his 'Selected Poems: 1956-1968'

Unsigned handwritten manuscript by Leonard Cohen, one page, 8.5 x 11, no date but circa 1960s. Cohen's handwritten manuscript for the poem "It's Just a City, Darling," sent to his editor at Viking Books, Corlies 'Cork' Smith, and published in the volume 'Selected Poems: 1956-1968.' In full: "It's just a city darling / everyone calls New York. / Wherever it is we meet / I can't go very far from. / I can't connect you with / anything but myself. / Half of the wharf is bleeding / I'd give up anything to love you / and I don't even know what the list is / but one look into it / demoralizes me like a lecture. / If we are training each other for another love / what is it? / I only have a hunch / in what I've become expert. / Half of the wharf is bleeding, / it's the half where we always sleep." The poem's original title, "16th Floor," is struck through, and the work ultimately adopted its first line as its name. In fine condition. Accompanied by a softcover edition of Leonard Cohen's Selected Poems: 1956-1968, which features this piece on page 224. First published in 1968, this was Cohen's first book to be published after his debut as a recording artist in December 1967.

Also includes a letter of provenance from Recordmecca's Jeff Gold, in part: "This letter is to authenticate an extraordinarily rare handwritten manuscript for Leonard Cohen's poem It's Just a City Darling, sent by Cohen to his editor at Viking Books, Corlies 'Cork' Smith…Handwritten letters, poetry manuscripts and lyric manuscripts by Leonard Cohen are exceedingly rare. In the early 1960s, at a time Cohen was a struggling poet living in near poverty on the Greek island of Hydra, the University of Toronto purchased his manuscripts as part of a program to collect the works of promising young Canadian writers. Afterward Cohen guarded his manuscripts scrupulously, and an exceedingly small number of his writings have ever come to market. A 2019 auction of his correspondence with Marianne Ihlen saw a 1960 letter sell for $56,250, while a 1964 letter sold for $35,000. This poem was part of the collection of Cohen's book editor Cork Smith (1929-2004), a New York editor who in a 50-year career published many important writers, including Thomas Pynchon, Jimmy Breslin and Calvin Trillin."

Auction Info

• Auction Title: Marvels of Modern Music
• Dates: #667 - Ended June 22, 2023