“I wrote all these songs for you . . .”
58 COHEN, Leonard. You Do Not Have to Love Me. [c.1968] £25,000 Manuscript in blue fibre-tip pen on single sheet of lined paper (279 × 215 mm) extracted from a spiral-bound notebook. Very good. ¶ Jirí Mesíc, Leonard Cohen, the Modern Troubadour , 2020.
Leonard Cohen’s holographic manuscript for his poem “You Do Not Have to Love Me” which was first published as one of the “new poems” in Leonard Cohen Selected Poems 1956–1968 (Viking, 1968). The object of the poem, and of Cohen’s unrequited infatuation, was the singer-songwriter Nico, who was “idealized by Cohen and made a subject of his worship” (Mesíc, p. 91). It appeared alongside a number of other poems that reference Nico. To Cohen, who was still early in his music career, “Nico represented all the women he had ever wanted and the more she rejected him, the more the poet suffered for the image of the Virgin” (ibid, p. 92). “You Do Not Have to Love Me” was also printed as a standalone piece by the Sore Dove Press in 2008, illustrated by Soyehl Dahi. Original manuscript material of this calibre from Leonard Cohen is rare, as the penurious poet realised at an early date that he could raise money selling his drafts to the Fisher Library in Toronto. This example comes from the archive of Cohen’s Viking editor Corlies “Cork” Smith (1929–2004), a New York-based editor who in a 50-year career published many important writers, including Thomas Pynchon, Jimmy Breslin, and Calvin Trillin.
[ 159215 ]
SIXTY FINE ITEMS
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
114
115
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator