Leonard Cohen

Canadian poet, novelist, and songwriter. Born in Montreal to a Jewish family — his grandfather was a Talmudic scholar — he published his first poetry book at twenty-two and his first novel, *The Favorite Game*, at twenty-nine. He moved to the Greek island of Hydra in the early '60s, lived simply, and wrote *Beautiful Losers* there. At thirty-two, broke and tired of being a literary cult figure, he moved to New York and reinvented himself as a songwriter. His songs are prayers, complaints, love letters, and arguments with God — all at once. *Suzanne*, *Bird on the Wire*, *Famous Blue Raincoat*, *Hallelujah*, *Anthem*, *You Want It Darker*. He battled depression his whole adult life. In 1994 he entered the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles and lived there for five years as a monk, attending his teacher Roshi. He was ordained with the name Jikan — "silence." When he came down from the mountain he discovered his longtime manager had stolen most of his money. At seventy-three he went back on tour to rebuild, and gave some of the most generous concerts of his life — three hours, on his knees, hat in hand, every night. He kept working until the end. He died three weeks after releasing *You Want It Darker*, at eighty-two. Core teaching: the broken places are not obstacles to the sacred — they are the way in. You do not need to be whole to praise. You only need to be honest. Key works: songs — *Songs of Leonard Cohen*, *I'm Your Man*, *The Future*, *You Want It Darker*. Poetry — *Let Us Compare Mythologies*, *Book of Longing*. Novels — *Beautiful Losers*.