Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen was born in Montreal, PQ in 1934. His
father, an engineer who owned a clothing concern, died when
Leonard was nine. He went on to attend McGill University,
where at 17 he formed a country-western trio called the
Buckskin Boys. He also began writing poetry and became part
of the local boho-literary scene, a scene so "underground"
that it was bereft of 'subversive intentions because even
that would be beneath it." His first collection of poetry,
'Let Us Compare Mythologies,’ was published in 1956, while
he was still an undergraduate. 'The Spice Box Of Earth’
(1961), his second collection, catapulted Leonard Cohen to
international recognition.

After a brief stint at Columbia University in New York,
Leonard Cohen obtained a grant and was able to escape the
confines of North America. He traveled throughout Europe and
eventually settled on the Greek island of Hydra, where he
shared his life with Marianne Jenson, and her son Axel.
Cohen stayed in Greece on and off for seven years. He wrote
two more collections of poetry, the controversial 'Flowers
For Hitler’ (1964) and 'Parasites of Heaven’ (1966); and two
highly acclaimed novels, 'The Favorite Game’ (1963), his
portrait of the artist as a young Jew in Montreal, and
'Beautiful Losers’ (1966), described on its dust jacket as
"a disagreeable religious epic of incomparable beauty." Upon
its publication, the Boston Globe declared, "James Joyce is
not dead. He is living in Montreal under the name of Cohen."
To date, each book has sold more than a million copies
worldwide.