Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen CC GOQ (21 September 1934 – 7 November 2016) was a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter whose literary career — largely eclipsed by his musical fame — produced some of the finest poetry and most daring fiction written in Canada in the twentieth century. Before “Suzanne” and “Hallelujah” made him a global icon, Cohen was a serious literary figure: a Governor General’s Award nominee, a published poet at twenty-two, and the author of one of the most experimental novels in Canadian literature. His writing and songwriting share a distinctive voice — darkly witty, erotically frank, spiritually restless, and possessed of a formal elegance that never descends into preciousness.

Life

Cohen was born into a prosperous Jewish family in Westmount, Montreal. His father, a clothing manufacturer, died when Leonard was nine. He attended McGill University, where he studied English and became immersed in the Montreal poetry scene — a milieu that included Irving Layton, who became a mentor and lifelong friend. After McGill he briefly attended graduate school at Columbia before returning to Montreal.

In 1960 he used a small inheritance and a Canada Council grant to move to the Greek island of Hydra, where he lived intermittently for the next seven years with his partner Marianne Ihlen — the “Marianne” of his famous song. On Hydra he wrote his two novels and several volumes of poetry, living cheaply and attempting to support himself as a literary writer.

By the mid-1960s, unable to sustain himself financially through writing, Cohen turned to music — arriving in New York City in 1966, entering the folk-music world, and beginning the recording career that would make him one of the most revered songwriters of the twentieth century. His literary career effectively ended, though he continued to publish poetry intermittently.

Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956)

Cohen’s debut poetry collection, published when he was twenty-two in the McGill Poetry Series. The poems draw on Jewish religious imagery, Montreal winters, sexuality, and loss — themes that would remain constant throughout his career. The collection was remarkably assured for a first book, and several poems — “Elegy,” “For Wilf and His House” — have entered the Canadian canon.

The Spice-Box of Earth (1961)

Cohen’s second and finest poetry collection. The title alludes to the spice box used in the Jewish Havdalah ceremony — the ritual marking the end of the Sabbath. The poems are more controlled and more sensuous than those in the debut, combining religious imagery with erotic frankness in a way that was startling in 1961. “As the Mist Leaves No Scar” and “You Have the Lovers” are among the most anthologised Canadian poems of the period.

The Favourite Game (1963)

Cohen’s first novel, a semi-autobiographical account of a young Jewish man growing up in Westmount, his erotic adventures, his artistic awakening, and his relationships with women. The novel is lyrical, witty, and sexually explicit by the standards of its era. It belongs to the tradition of the Künstlerroman — Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist, Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers — and captures Montreal’s Jewish community with a vividness that makes it an essential document of Canadian social history.

Beautiful Losers (1966)

Cohen’s second novel is one of the most audacious and controversial works of Canadian literature. It weaves together three narratives: a contemporary Québécois narrator’s obsession with Catherine Tekakwitha, a seventeenth-century Mohawk saint; his relationship with his friend and sexual partner “F.”; and a hallucinatory, apocalyptic coda.

The novel is deliberately obscene, formally chaotic, and wildly ambitious. It draws on surrealism, pop culture, Indigenous history, Catholic mysticism, and pornography in a mix that baffled and scandalised readers. Critics compared it to Burroughs’s Naked Lunch and Céline’s Death on the Installment Plan. It sold poorly on publication but became a cult classic and is now recognised as a landmark of experimental fiction.

Later Poetry

Cohen published poetry intermittently throughout his music career:

• Flowers for Hitler (1964) — darker and more politically engaged than the earlier collections
• Book of Mercy (1984) — prose poems modelled on the Psalms, reflecting Cohen’s deep engagement with Judaism and his study of Zen Buddhism
• Book of Longing (2006) — poems and drawings from the five years Cohen spent at the Mount Baldy Zen Center
• The Flame (2018, posthumous) — poems, song lyrics, and notebook entries from his final years

Stranger Music (1993)

Cohen’s selected poems and songs, published by McClelland & Stewart, is the essential single-volume Cohen. It collects the best of the poetry alongside the song lyrics, demonstrating the continuity between his literary and musical careers — the same preoccupations, the same voice, the same combination of gravity and self-mockery.

Critical Standing

Cohen’s literary reputation has been complicated by his musical fame. In Canada he is recognised as a major poet — one of the most important of the postwar generation, alongside Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy, and Irving Layton. Beautiful Losers is acknowledged as a masterpiece of experimental fiction, though it remains more often cited than read.

Internationally, his literary work is overshadowed by his songs, which is both understandable and unfortunate. The poetry deserves to be read independently of the music — it has its own formal qualities, its own tonal range, and its own relationship to the Canadian landscape and Jewish tradition that the songs only partially capture.

Collecting Cohen

Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956, Contact Press, McGill Poetry Series) is the great Cohen rarity — approximately 400 copies printed, now bringing $2,000–$5,000 or more. The Spice-Box of Earth (1961, McClelland & Stewart) first editions bring $200–$500. Beautiful Losers (1966, McClelland & Stewart) in first edition brings $100–$300. Cohen’s later poetry collections are more readily available. Signed books are scarce — Cohen was not a frequent public signer in his later decades.