Leonard Cohen notebook sold for $174,000 in memorabilia auction

MONTREAL — From pages inked with poems to a locket containing a lock of hair, memorabilia belonging to the late Canadian poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was auctioned on Friday, raking in thousands of dollars.

The Montreal icon died at the age of 82 in 2016 and Julien’s Auctions billed the event — held online as well as its Los Angeles studio — as the largest auction of Cohen’s private effects, with close to 170 pieces.

A 76-page notebook filled with poems and the lyrics to the songs “Treaty” and “It’s Torn” sold for US$120,650 US (C$174,194), the biggest sale of the day, the auction house said in a press release.

A first edition copy of “Let Us Compare Mythologies,” Cohen’s first published volume of poetry sold for the equivalent of C$15,015 and handwritten pages of some poems he published in 1968 sold for $22,920 and $18,770 respectively, it said.

In Montreal, Fergus Keyes, a die-hard fan of both Cohen’s literature and music catalogue, said he hopes the people who successfully bid for pieces of history were true fans. If money was no object, he said he would have relished the chance to collect some memorabilia — especially anything handwritten.

“Anything that he wrote … would have been very impressive to me,” Keyes said in an interview Saturday.

But Keyes does have his own keepsake. He met Cohen over two decades ago at a Montreal bookstore and got a signed copy of Beautiful Losers addressed to him.

“I treasure that book,” said Keyes.

Aside from song and the written word, a typed letter from Cohen addressed to one of his editors was sold for $18,769. It featured several ink drawings Cohen drew including an oil lamp, medusa head, horse figure and fig leaf on a naked body.

Other items auctioned date from the time the songwriter spent in Greece, including a key to Cohen’s home on the island Hydra, which sold for $28,154, while a black Greek fisherman’s cap sold for $11,261.

Jewelry including a locket containing Cohen’s hair sold for $7,334 and a gold bracelet sold for $6,569 while two mezuzahs — a religious item of the Jewish faith — sold for $11,261.

“I think he’s probably the best poet-songwriter who has ever turned out of Canada,” said Keyes.

In 2017, shortly after Cohen’s passing, Keyes was one of 18 lifelong Cohen fans to record their version of Cohen’s album “I’m Your Man.”

To this day, Keyes regularly listens to Cohen tracks and thumbs through his poetry. “He’ll always be somehow in the back of my mind. Leonard Cohen will always be there,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2025.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press