Leonard Cohen (2005) CasTaN

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter,
musician, poet, and novelist. His work has explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality,
and personal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He
is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011,
Cohen received a Prince of Asturias Award for literature.

The critic Bruce Eder assessed Cohen's overall career in popular music by asserting that
"[he is] one of the most fascinating and enigmatic … singer/songwriters of the late '60s …
[and] has retained an audience across four decades of music-making … Second only to Bob Dylan
(and perhaps Paul Simon) [in terms of influence], he commands the attention of critics and
younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who is still working
at the outset of the 21st century."
The Academy of American Poets has commented more broadly on Cohen's overall career in the arts,
including his work as a poet, novelist, and songwriter, stating that "[Cohen's] successful
blending of poetry, fiction, and music is made most clear in Stranger Music: Selected Poems and
Songs, published in 1993, which gathered more than 200 of Cohen's poems … several novel excerpts,
and almost 60 song lyrics … While it may seem to some that Leonard Cohen departed from the
literary in pursuit of the musical, his fans continue to embrace him as a Renaissance man who
straddles the elusive artistic borderlines."