Leonard Cohen was an iconic author, poet and musician.
Cohen was born to a prosperous Jewish family in Westmount. His grandfather, Lyon Cohen, was the owner of the successful men’s clothing manufacturing firm, the Freedman Company, and was perhaps the Jewish community’s foremost leader during the early decades of the 20th century. His father, Nathan Cohen, died when Cohen was just nine years old, leaving him under the care of his Russian-born mother, Masha, as the family became more dependent on the support of his father’s brothers. Cohen attended Roslyn School and then Westmount High School, while also going to Hebrew school and becoming a bar mitzvah at the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue, where his family was actively involved. It was during his adolescence that he turned more and more to writing and learned to play guitar.
At McGill University, Cohen met the poet and English professor Louis Dudek, who helped publish Cohen’s first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies, in 1956, soon after Cohen’s graduation. During the 1950s, Cohen encountered poet Irving Layton, who became another mentor. After graduating, Cohen continued to publish poetry, but also produced his first two novels, The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966), while living on the small Greek island of Hydra in the Aegean Sea. In 1967, Cohen relocated to the US and began performing his own songs in the New York folk music scene. His debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, featuring songs such as “Suzanne” and “So Long, Marianne,” garnered him fame in both folk circles and with a wider audience. He continued to develop as a songwriter and performer, notably on the Phil Spector-produced Death of a Ladies’ Man (1977), which featured cameos from Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg. Various Positions (1984) featured some of Cohen’s most well-known songs, including “Hallelujah” and “Dance Me to the End of Love.”
In the 1990s, Cohen spent five years living in a secluded Buddhist retreat outside Los Angeles, returning to music in 2001 with Ten New Songs. In recent years he has continued to come out with new albums. His 14th, You Want It Darker, was released on October 21, 2016.
The recipient of innumerable lifetime achievement awards, an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a Companion of the Order of Canada, Cohen maintained a residence in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood until he passed away in 2016.
