Montreal, 28 October 1963

Typed letter signed (“Leonard”) to Marianne Ihlen ("Dearest Marianne"), with autograph annotations, Montreal, 28 October 1963.

One page, 280 x 175mm.

"I have nothing to say that this long Montreal autumn couldn't say better. Your face has been with me to-day. I will always reach after you."

His last letter followed a miserable phone call, and from this letter we learn that Marianne, too, was distraught after the conversation. She has sent a cable, and pictures, and Cohen notes: “Something in your expression so unattainable, I feel my hand closing over air.” The letter includes not one but two “never minds” as he struggles to find the right words. In the end he drew several lines through the body of the letter and closed, “I’ve said nothing here that I wanted to say.”

Momentum has picked up on the book: “Much publicity here, a big spread in the Montreal Star, tv programs coming up, readings etc, people stopping me on the street etc. The book is on the best seller list for the fourth week, the only Canadian book up there.”

As always, despite the difficulties between them, he still beckons her to come. "The apartment at Rosengarten's country place is waiting for us. All we have to do is paint the kitchen... Darling please get over here. All my love, Leonard."

By descent from Marianne Ihlen.