The name Leonard Cohen is as much an integral part of Canadian art as any. The writer, poet and musician has dazzled audiences for decades with his socially conscious and melancholy writing and singing. He has attained a loyal following of fans and has established himself as on of the greatest poets and songwriters Canada has ever had.
Cohen's story starts in September of 1934, when he was born in Montreal. His family was Jewish, and his father worked as a clothing merchant. However, Cohen's father died when Leonard was nine years old. At age 13, Cohen began playing a guitar (which he started to impress a girl), and within a year was playing his own songs at local cafes. Through songwriting, Cohen discovered his passion for being an author, and went to McGill University to pursue an English major. It was here that he joined two others to form a country group, the Buckskin Boys.
English: Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. cl...
Leonard Cohen and Band
English: Leonard Cohen, during the Geneva concert ...It was also at McGill that he started writing poetry. His first book, Let Us Compare Mythologies, was published before he had graduated and shot him to international success.
After another book of poetry, a McGill degree and an attempt to join his family business, Cohen went to Columbia University two years of study, where he wrote and lived comfortably off government and university grants. It was also here where Cohen began his free-swinging lifestyle, which involved many women, travel, and the drug LSD. During this period, Cohen became very well known among Canadian people.
20 years later, Cohen moved to Greece where he lived for seven years with his wife, Marianne, and her son from a different marriage, Axel. Here he wrote and relaxed, however he had an itch for songwriting. After writing several books, including another book of poetry, titled Flowers For...