Ballet of Lepers

Murray Hill · Post by **Murray Hill** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:40 am

Hey everyone,
in the collection we are using in my Canadian poetry class, a brief biography of Leonard Cohen mentions an unpublished novel called 'Ballet of Lepers'. Do any of you lovely people know what this is? Is it simply another version of 'Beauty at Close Quarters', an early version of The Favourite Game? Any light shed on this would be appreciated.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:29 pm

Or, perhaps, a first choice for a title for Beautiful Losers?

Murray Hill · Post by **Murray Hill** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:31 pm

Perhaps but it says that he wrote it upon returning to Montreal after dropping out of Columbia. So I assume that it predates even Favourite Game not to mention Beautiful Losers.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 9:22 pm

OK, I see what you're saying, Murray. If you know and have lined up all the dates and they work out like that, then the mystery certainly continues

. I was thinking strictly in terms of an unpublished manuscript, not knowing when it was written vs. when it was published, and under what name.

~ Lizzy

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:29 am

Margaret will know. Be patient. She doesn't use and has never used Google or any other search engines for her research. She uses her vast library and knowledge of lc. So, like I say. Be patient.

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:38 am

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 hope this helps.

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:43 am

Linmag, well done. I knew I'd read it somewhere.

pp58-9, 60, 117.

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:55 am

Thanks for giving the page references, Byron. I should have thought to do that.

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 3:13 am

I'm your devoted page, mylady.

Murray Hill · Post by **Murray Hill** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:17 am

thank you Linmag for your response and Byron for the exact reference. Interesting that the ideas for Beautiful Losers and Energy of Slaves were floating around his head so early on....