The great loves of Leonard Cohen's life.
Leonard Cohen's enduring and poetic music won him audiences throughout the world.
A generous reminder that we must aim for “a revelation in the heart rather than a confrontation or a call-to-arms or a defense.”
The Flame by Leonard Cohen with Remembrance of Things Past by Nancy A. Bekofske In the last days of his life, Leonard Cohen prepared his last book, gathering drawings, unpublished material, and the lyrics from his last albums. He was a man who knew he was in his last days and an artist who needed to send out one last envoy to the world. That book has been published as The Flame. The image on the cover is the burning bush, a green tree surrounded by fire and yet is not burned by the flames. Cohen's "flame burned bright within him to the very end," said Robert Kory, manager and trustee of the Cohen estate, “this book, finished only days before his death, reveals the intensity of his inner fire to all.” One of the first record albums I bought as an early teen was The Songs of Leonard Cohen. I later bought the songbook. I grew up listening to those songs, singing those songs, strumming chords on my guitar. When an ARC of Cohen's final book The Flame arrived I downloaded the digital album and revisited those songs while opening the book to read. The Flame with Remembrance of Things Past by Nancy A. Bekofske As I worked my way through the book I researched Cohen's life and work online. I discovered the poets who he admired and influenced him, including Frederico Garcia Lorca; Cohen even named his daughter Lorca. The drawings are primarily self-portraits, his face deeply creased and intense, and of women, spiritual imagery, and a few still lifes. Facsimiles of his manuscripts are also included. The selections are confessional, addressing his personal struggles with depression, relationships, and spiritual meaning. Rhythm is more important than rhyme. The imagery is often very personal, arcane, but also with references to Biblical stories and Jewish history. The message I gather is this: When love fails to save us and faith fails to bring grace, and the world has become merciless, music and poetry become acts of resistance rebellion. The creative urge engenders the flame that can not be quenched or dimmed by the world. I received an ARC from the publisher through a Goodreads giveaway. The Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings by Leonard Cohen Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication Date 10/02/2018 $28 hardbound ISBN: 9780374156060
In 1973, I took a brief sabbatical from college to study in Switzerland at the University of the New World. I still have the small red course catalog somewhere. It was a school started by visionary hustler Al de Grazia, who had been a professor at Brown and … well, you should see what they […]
Leonard Cohen sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Danny Fields on November 6, 1974, at the Chelsea Hotel, New York City. They discuss how Leonard got into show business, his experiences living in Montreal
Legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen predicted his own death in a heartbreaking goodbye letter to his ex-love Marianne Ihlen. Cohen and Ihlen met in Greece in the 1960s. She had recently been left by her husband, who took off and left both her and their six-month-old son alone in Greece. Cohen invited them to live with him in Montreal and Ihlem accepted the offer. They quickly became a couple and their romantic relationship lasted for a decade.
Found this in a book of Leonard Cohen poems! Kate, seemed to go well with your recent Flickr uploads!
An interview with the director behind "Marianne and Leonard"
Following the news of the death of Canadian singer, songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen, [i]Vogue[/i] editor-in-chief Alexandra Shulman reminisces on the clothes worn by Cohen’s ‘Suzanne’
Legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen predicted his own death in a heartbreaking goodbye letter to his ex-love Marianne Ihlen. Cohen and Ihlen met in Greece in the 1960s. She had recently been left by her husband, who took off and left both her and their six-month-old son alone in Greece. Cohen invited them to live with him in Montreal and Ihlem accepted the offer. They quickly became a couple and their romantic relationship lasted for a decade.
Having your first child leave for college sure has a way of revealing some memories that you thought were tucked away. The news of Leonard Cohen’s death just compounded it. Loss. Memories. Sa…
Leonard Cohen's enduring and poetic music won him audiences throughout the world.
Philippe Girard (Leonard Cohen: On a Wire, translated by Helge Dascher and Karen Houle) and Joe Ollmann (Fictional Father) spoke to one another as part of D+Q Live, a fall event series by the graph…
Leonard Cohen, Adam Cohen, Adam’s mother, Suzanne Elrod and sister Lorca Cohen. Taken in Montreal, circa 1976, by Hazel Field. source: Leonard Cohen’s third act, by Brian D. Johnson, September 21,...
Having just turned 80, the singer/songwriter and poet has released his 13th album, a collection of songs that proves his right to sing his exalted version of the blues.
Depuis que nous avons une platine Vinyle, l’envie d’avoir certains albums se fait présente. Je parle de ces albums qui marquent une grande partie de notre vie. Des albums qui nous suivent pendant des années et qui entrent dans la liste des disques qu’on aimera sans doute pour toujours. Alors sans trop de surprise, certains artistes […]
How lucky we are he lived.
We take a look at how the Velvet Underground's John Cale transformed Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' into the masterpiece it is
A (very) short reflection on loss from the singer and poet Leonard Cohen
A novella and short stories from the 1950s showcase Cohen’s fascinating self-fashioning, but also a taint of bitterness
As important to poetry as he was to music, the late Leonard Cohen's words live on.
LEONARD COHEN Il gioco preferito-Beautiful losers Minimum Fax Il gioco preferito, pubblicato originariamente nel 1963, è un esuberante romanzo di formazione, paragonato dalla critica al Ritratto de…
It has always been up to the world’s poets, artists, its songwriters, its comics and dancers – the beautiful losers – to make sense of that which lies behind the brutality, the spin, the lies and the deception of the physical realm. Leonard Cohen, from his early beginnings in Montreal in the 1950s where the impending threat of nuclear catastrophe consumed a generation, until his dignified exit on November 7 – checking out just in time to avoid a Trump presidency – leaves behind a prolific body of work, a rich well of spiritual and emotional sustenance and humour, from which the dazed and confused will draw comfort, succour and maybe transcendence for years to come. By MARIANNE THAMM.
