Leonard Cohen Letter to Marianne Ihlen and Hendrix Signatures Lead RR Auction's 'Marvels of Modern Music' Sale

RR Auction's music-focused December sale features a range of signed albums and historic documents including a rare one-page autograph letter signed “Leonard” written March 31, 1967, from Buffalo, New York, to Cohen’s girlfriend and muse Marianne Ihlen.

Written just as Cohen was transitioning from poet and novelist to singer-songwriter, the letter references the Greek island of Hydra as the “honey island” that shaped both their relationship and his early creative life: "It’s good to know you. I love that picture you sent. I’ve looked at it a long time."

Cohen wrote the letter one day after he had read and sang at the University at Buffalo, and it dates to the threshold of his music career and precedes the release of Songs of Leonard Cohen later that year. It is accompanied by the original hand-addressed mailing envelope.

Other highlights include: 

• a vintage pressing of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band signed by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr
• a fully signed Experience 1968 document from Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell, and Noel Redding about payment of royalties
• an original artwork by Bob Dylan, Side Tracks is a colorful large-scale mixed-media composition featuring Dylan's image of empty train tracks stretching into the horizon

 Marvels of Modern Music ends on December 18.