Leonard Norman Cohen CC GOQ, born September 21, 1934, was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. His work dealt with religion, politics, loneliness, grief, sexuality, loss, death, and human relationships.
He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He received the highest civilian accolade in Canada, the Companion of the Order of Canada. He received one of the Prince of Asturias Literature Awards and the sixth Glenn Gould Prize in 2011.
Marsha, his Lithuanian mother, arrived in Canada as the daughter of Talmudic writer and rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline in 1927.
Lyon Cohen, the first president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, was his paternal grandfather, whose family came to Canada from Poland. His parents gave him the Jewish name Eliezer, which means “God helps”. Nathan Bernard Cohen, a garment store owner, died when Cohen was nine years old.
What were Leonard Cohen’s last words?
I suppose I’ll never live the orderly life that my father did. And I’ll never live in a house like his, with its rituals, dignity, and the smell of polish. Those were his last words.
