Leonard Cohen love letters to Marianne go for nearly $1 million at auction

A collection of nearly 50 love letters from Leonard Cohen to Marianne Ihlen (who inspired “So Long Marianne” and many other of his songs) have sold for $876,000 at a recent Christie’s auction. The letters sold individually, and Reuters reports that one from December 1960, where he wrote about being “alone with the vast dictionaries of language,” went for $56,250 but was estimated to only sell for $10,000.  Another, which was from 1964 and had Cohen writing “I am famous but empty,” went for $35,000. You can check out some of the letters that were up for auction over at Christie’s.

For more on their storied love affair, documentary Marianne & Leonard is out in July, and Cohen exhibit “Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything” is on display at NYC’s The Jewish Museum through September.