Leonard Cohen's Hydra

On September 27, 1960, six days after his twenty-sixth birthday, Cohen bought a house in Hydra for $1500, using a bequest from his recently deceased grandmother. This was a "big deal" in the words of one of his friends, a commitment to place and a world that was mysterious and unusual. Buying the house was a complicated act, needing the assistance of his friend Demetri Gassoumis as translator, adviser, and witness to the deed. Cohen later said that it was the smartest decision he ever made. The tree-story, ancient whitewashed building, with its five rooms on several levels, was run down and had no electricity, plumbing or running water. Yet it was a private space where he could work, either on the large riled terrace or in his music room on the third floor.

He knew he had been accepted by the community when he began receiving regular visits from the garbage man and his donkey. To a friend he explained that, “Having this house makes cities less frightening. I can always come back and get by. But I don't want to lose contact with the metropolitan experience.” Buying the house also gave him confidence, “The years are flying past and we all waste so much time wondering if we dare to do this or that. The thing is to leap, to try, to take a chance.”

It was a place of solitude, of plodding donkeys (even today no cars are allowed on the island; nor would they get very far if they were), cold water and kerosene lamps. In such primitive surroundings, amid the stunning beauties of the island and the glories of the Aegean, where fishermen still wrested a living from the sea and ferries scrabbled one from the land, Leonard found his peace, his sitting-down time, as he called it, where he could -as all pots must - recollect in tranquillity. Here he could live in virtually complete seclusion, at a fraction of the cost it would take in Northern Europe or Canada, where the people were unconcerned as to who you were or what you did; And where breathtaking vistas opened up for the seeing - both external and internal.

Leonard Cohen was a Canadian songwriter who died on November 7, 2016 at his home in Los Angeles, California. He was 82 years old. 

To read this article in full, please visit: Leonard Cohen Files