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Poetry Canadian

Book of Longing

by (author) Leonard Cohen

Publisher
McClelland & Stewart
Initial publish date
Apr 2006
Category
Canadian, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780771022340
    Publish Date
    Apr 2006
    List Price
    $25
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780771022296
    Publish Date
    Mar 2007
    List Price
    $21.00

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Description

Leonard Cohen is one of the great writers, performers, and most consistently daring artists of our time. Book of Longing is Cohen’s eagerly awaited new collection of poems, following his highly acclaimed 1984 title, Book of Mercy, and his hugely successful 1993 publication, Stranger Music, a Globe and Mail national bestseller. Book of Longing contains erotic, playful, and provocative line drawings and artwork on every page, by the author, which interact in exciting and unexpected ways on the page with poetry that is timeless, meditative, and at times darkly humorous. The book brings together all the elements that have brought Leonard Cohen’s artistry with language worldwide recognition.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Leonard Cohen's artistic career began in 1956 with the publication of Let Us Compare Mythologies. Since then, he has published eleven books, including two novels, The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966), and, most recently, Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs (1993). He has -made seventeen albums, the latest being Dear Heather (2004). Numerous tribute albums, in many languages, have celebrated his songs.

Excerpt: Book of Longing (by (author) Leonard Cohen)

IRVING AND ME AT THE HOSPITAL

He stood up for Nietzsche
I stood up for Christ
He stood up for victory
I stood up for less

I loved to read his verses
He loved to hear my song
We never had much interest
In who was right or wrong

His boxer’s hands were shaking
He struggled with his pipe
Imperial Tobacco
Which I helped him light

KITCHEN TABLE

The same useless thoughts arise
but no one claims them —
Loneliness seizes the frame
and shakes away hope
but no one is hopeless
no one is lonely —
The intricate preparations
for the next moment
direct you
to read this now —
Surrendered to the One
who placed me here
I sit at the very table
where these songs began
some forty years ago —
busy as a bee
in the solitude

- Hydra, 1999

Editorial Reviews

“[Book of Longing] is not so much an illustrated collection of poems as it is a shaped autobiography.”
— Globe and Mail

“It reaffirms Cohen’s mastery in the domain of desire, and devotees will not be disappointed.”
— Austin Chronicle

“Tenderness may have replaced passion, but Cohen’s ability to capture this shift makes it poignant and meaningful. . . . Cohen has taken what his friend Irving Layton called ‘the inescapable lousiness of growing old’ and has given it, in its waning days, a profound romantic dignity.”
— Montreal Gazette

“He’s shown an uncanny knack for expressing the changing Zeitgeist.”
— Toronto Star

Other titles by

A Ballet of Lepers

A Novel and Stories

by (author) Leonard Cohen

The Flame

Poems and Selections From Notebooks

by (author) Leonard Cohen

Flowers for Hitler

by (author) Leonard Cohen

The Spice-Box of Earth

by (author) Leonard Cohen

Parasites of Heaven

by (author) Leonard Cohen

Let Us Compare Mythologies

by (author) Leonard Cohen

Death of a Lady's Man

by (author) Leonard Cohen

The Energy of Slaves

by (author) Leonard Cohen

Book of Mercy

by (author) Leonard Cohen

Writing the Terrain

Travelling Through Alberta with the Poets

contributions by Ian Adam, Robert Stamp, Tammy Armstrong, Margaret Avison, Douglas Barbour, John O. Barton, Doug Beardsley, Bonnie Bishop, E.D. Blodgett, Robert Boates, George Bowering, Tim Bowling, Jan Boydol, Gordon Burles, Murdoch Burnett, Anne Campbell, Weyman Chan, Leonard Cohen, Dennis Cooley, Joan Crate, Michael Cullen, Cyril Dabydeen, Lorne Daniel, Alexa DeWiel, Jason Dewinetz, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Cecelia Frey, Gary Geddes, Gail Ghai, Deborah Godin, Jim Green, Leslie Greentree, Vivian Hansen, Tom Henihan, Michael Henry, Walter Hildebrandt, Gerald Hill, Robert Hilles, Nancy Holmes, Richard Hornsey, Tom Howe, Aislinn Hunter, Bruce Hunter, Laurence Hutchman, Sally Ito, Pauline Johnson, Aleksei Kazuk, Robert Kroetsch, Fiona Lam, William Latta, Tim Lilburn, Alice Major, Kim Maltman, Miriam Mandel, Sid Marty, David McFadden, Barry McKinnon, Erin Michie, Deborah Miller, Anna Mioduchowska, James M. Moir, Colin Morton, Erín Moure, Charles Noble, P.K. Page, Rajinderpal Pal, Ruth Roach Pierson, Joseph Pivato, Roberta Rees, D.C. Reid, Monty Reid, R. rickey, Ken Rivard, Stephen Scobie, Allan Serafino, Joan Shillington, Greg Simison, Carol Ann Sokoloff, Karen Solie, Stephan Stephansson, Peter Stevens, Ivan Sundal, Anne Swannell, Vanna Tessier, Colleen Thibadeau, John O. Thompson, James M. Thurgood, Eva Tihanyi, Yvonne Trainer, Aritha van Herk, Rosalee van Stelten, Miriam Waddington, James Wreford Watson, Wilfred Watson, Tom Wayman, Phyllis Webb, Jon Whyte, Christine Wiesenthal, Sheri-D Wilson, Christopher Wiseman, Stacie Wolfer, Rita Wong, Richard Woollatt & Jan Zwicky

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