Leonard's manuscripts at Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:45 pm

[This discussion has been split from Who is "F."?? Take Two. - ~ Tom]

~greg in the [url=http://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=62655#62655]original thread[/url] wrote:
At McGill, one of Cohen's surviving essays is on death;
ironically, Cohen emphasizes the lack of its effect on him,
although he concludes by reversing that attitude:

"Death is a tragedy and whether it strikes at an
eight-year-old youngster ... or a senile old man,
a scar is always left on one ... of the survivors
- a scar that does not heal quickly." (qtd. in Dorman 48-49).

Does anyone know more about this essay on death by Leonard Cohen? What is it titled? I can't find it in the McGill Muse catalog. Does L. Dorman in her bio of LC mentions how she had access to it?

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:49 am

Maybe it's among manuscripts in Leonard Cohen Papers, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/c ... ohen03.pdf

Most scholars did use this place, with Leonard's permission (most lately, David Boucher for his book).

Simon, I think some short stories were published ("Trade" was), in magazines. I hope someone from North America would one day go to library and copy them for this forum. The same goes with Leonard's and Layton's play (forgot the name).

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:39 pm

Tom Sakic wrote:Maybe it's among manuscripts in Leonard Cohen Papers, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/c ... ohen03.pdf

Most scholars did use this place, with Leonard's permission (most lately, David Boucher for his book).

Thanks Tom for the links. That may be where the essay on death is archived, box 11, «notes from college».

I couldn't help but notice the mention of The Ballet of Lepers listed as an unpublished novel in box #1, along with some other unpublished short stories.

The Ballet of Lepers was discussed in an other thread here in december 2003. In one of the posts from that thread, Linmag wrote:

Murray,
According to Ira Nadel's biography "Various Positions", Ballet of Lepers was first completed in 1957, and was rejected by two publishers. It had some themes in common with Beautiful Losers (and Energy of Slaves), but was not an early version of it.

I don't know if there is even a slight chance that 'F' might be one of the common themes with Beautiful Losers, but if yes, reading Ballet of Lepers, could help finding out who 'F' is. Same thing with the unpublished short stories since they were written before BL.

Just a thought.

Boy, those 14 boxes would have the effect of a tresory vault on many of the fans here, especially box 13...

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:08 am

Simon wrote:
Tom Sakic wrote:Maybe it's among manuscripts in Leonard Cohen Papers, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/c ... ohen03.pdf

Most scholars did use this place, with Leonard's permission (most lately, David Boucher for his book).
Thanks Tom for the links. That may be where the essay on death is archived, box 11, «notes from college».

(...)

Boy, those 14 boxes would have the effect of a tresory vault on many of the fans here, especially box 13...

Someone else did discover Toronto in the meantime...

Needless to say, Toronto is now near and dear to my heart, and I look forward to going back and spending some exploring the Thomas
Fisher Rare Book Library, Bloor Street, and The Music Garden co-designed by Yo-Yo Ma.

Anjani's new post at http://www.anjani-music.com/news.html

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:12 pm

Super posting by Anjani ~ and really fine photos! Anjani photographs so beautifully. A seemingly media blitz for Anjani and Leonard, and it's also good to see the "A Team"

.

This is all so exciting... and now New York press tours! They would be an unmistakable pair on the streets of New York or entering/exiting a cab.

Thanks for this, Tom

.

~ Lizzy

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:07 pm

Thanks Tom.

Has Anjani ever mentioned of her intention to write a bio of Leonard? Of course she could be just very curious about those 14 boxes as anyone of us here. But it's interesting that she manifested this interest publicly.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:11 pm

Regarding those boxes, my concern is that, since Kelley is considerably younger than Leonard, at some strategic point in time, she will be attempting to sell the contents... eBay, private collectors, whatever. It makes me angry to think of it.

~ Lizzy

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:51 pm

The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, as I understand it, is part of the University of Toronto. If the documents were deposited there to be archived, wasn't it precisely to avoid their dispertion? Couldn't the University claim their ownership of the boxes? Why aren't those boxes at McGill?

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:55 pm

Oh-oh... sorry. I mistook that "boxes" reference for the boxes Kelley has... I guess I oughta give myself an edited line, or ask Jarkko to delete my posting, but I'll just let my 'stupidity' stand

.

~ Lizzy

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:11 pm

That's allright Lizz. Your post does triger interesting questions.

Why aren't those boxes at McGill? What is the story of their finding their way to Toronto.

What may be the content of Kelly's boxes? Did someone say that she left with LC's notebooks?

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:32 pm

Hi Simon ~

It was also more than 14 boxes that Kelley kept, so that should've triggered something, but nooooo........

Apparently, photos, letters, some notebooks, who knows what all... the only thing I know is that they're not meaningful to her like they are to Leonard. They're also absolutely irreplaceable.

~ Lizzy

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:11 am

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at Universiyty of Toronto is simply buying manuscripts and correspondence from major Canadian writers. They're specialized in that (as name of library says). In about 1970 (in Nadel you can find exact date) they offered Leonard good money, and he gave them manuscripts for archiving. This is actually very good way of keeping the arhives which could be lost. It seems that Leonard liked it, because he gave them dozen of boxes again in 2001 (what we didn't know, actually).

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/index.html

The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library houses the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections including books, manuscripts and other materials; and the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services (UTARMS), which holds the official records of the University. The present building was opened in 1973. It is named in honour of Thomas Fisher (1792-1874), who came from Yorkshire to Upper Canada in 1821 and settled by the Humber River. There he operated a grist mill, and played an active role in the public life of the community. In 1973 his great- grandsons, Sidney and Charles Fisher, donated to the Library their own collections of Shakespeare, various twentieth century authors, and the etchings of the seventeenth century Bohemian artist, Wenceslaus Hollar. Since that time the Library has grown to approximately 600,000 volumes and 2500 linear metres of manuscript holdings.

The collections are many and varied, reflecting the wide diversity of research conducted at the University of Toronto by its own faculty and students, visiting scholars, and the general public. Chronologically, the range is from a 1789 B.C. Babylonian cuneiform tablet from Ur, to original drafts and printed works of contemporary Canadian writers. Among the oldest printed books in the collection are the Concilium zu Constencz, printed in Augsburg in 1483, with hand-coloured woodcuts, four of which illustrate the martyrdom of Jan Hus; the Compost et Kalendrier des bergères, an almanac printed in Paris in 1499; and a copy of Johannes Balbus's Catholicon, printed in the 1460s, possibly by Johann Gutenberg.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:18 am

And more from their site, http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/c ... dings.html

INDEX TO COLLECTIONS
The Library houses well over 400 manuscript collections covering a wide range of subject areas. Holdings range from a collection of about 40 third-century B.C. Egyptian papyri to papers of the co-discoverers of insulin: Banting, Best, Collip and Macleod; and finally to drafts, research notes, and correspondence of Canadian authors such as Margaret Atwood, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Leonard Cohen, Mazo de la Roche and Josef Skvorecky. The majority of our manuscript collections date from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries and pertain to Canadian historical, literary, artistic or scientific fields.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:00 pm

I wish that at least the paper contents of the boxes that went to Kelley had gone to them, but I guess that's a moot wish and, no doubt, shared by some others. I'm grateful for what did end up there ~ safely.

~ Lizzy

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:35 pm

Lizzytysh, I think that Leonard received those boxes from Kelley back, with help of sherif office of LA. Maybe I'm misreading your post that you think they're stil with kelley, but there was the news last Fall, and last week, Leronard's laywer mentioned they seized the boxes by force, in that news about the default court decision from LA court. So I think the boxes and archive are safe now, and I presume Leonard will gave most of them to Thomas Fisher Library. I guess there were current and more recent things inside, so he will need some manuscripts for now:-)