The World of Leonard Cohen, edited by David R. Shumway

Cambridge University Press, 2026

The mystical troubadour, poet, novelist, occasional entertainer of IDF troops, ordained Zen monk and gravel-voiced author and performer of songs covered by millions (not least the eventually ubiquitous ‘Hallelujah’) has been dead for ten years now and along comes this collection of academic essays, some good, some bad, some simply tedious, to describe him in the round. It is not a bad way of proceeding. The trouble with Cohen is he wore so many hats (not just his trademark fedora on stage), and gave so many interviews, asserted and obfuscated so many of what he named one album after as various positions, that it was almost impossible to pin him down.

Bob Dylan was born a Jew, became a folk singer, became a rocker, embraced Christianity and put out a gospel album or two, then resumed Jewish practise and kept on keeping on. Aside from one prose work and one volume of memoirs, Dylan was well, Dylan—the greatest songwriter of modern times. Leonard was—as the sheer range of these essays will show you—a romantic Troubadour, a persistent novelist, songwriter of choice for the covers of others (“Think of a famous name—particularly one known for their vocal prowess—or someone who thinks they should be known for their vocal prowess—and the odds are they’ve sung their own broken ‘Hallelujah’ at some point,” notes Dylan chronicler Ray Padgett), a disciplined Buddhist, practising Jew, Christian provocateur, award-winning Canadian literary giant, star of documentary cinema, archived legend—the list goes on and on.

The two most substantial books published about him recently are Matti Friedman’s Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, about his adventures in Israel during the Yom Kippur War, and Eric Lerner’s Matters of Vital Interest, a record of their forty year friendship as Buddhist monks. Surely not the same man? 

In some ways the most authoritative essay in the anthology is by Robert de Yong, former archivist and creative producer with the Leonard Cohen Family Trust and director of a concert film about him in forthcoming box set of his work. He notes, for example,  from his perspective in the........

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