Various Positions

by Nadel, Ira Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780292717329
• ISBN10: 0292717326
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

From reviews of the hardcover edition:"[Various Positions is] more a literary than a rock bio--quiet of tone, serious without being worshipful. Drawing on Cohen's own archives, Nadel plots aspects of Cohen's life--Zen, love affairs, drug use--against the evolution of his writing. He fashions a biography that is revealing but also mindful of its subject at his best."--Booklist"An excellent biography, one that manages to be both thoroughly scholarly and genuinely entertaining at the same time."--Montreal Gazette"An honest and sympathetic biography."--New York Times Book Review"The most authoritative work yet on the 'poet laureate of pessimism.'"--Library JournalKnown as the "Prince of Bummers," Leonard Cohen is a multi-talented poet, singer-songwriter, novelist, and Zen Buddhist whose career has spanned more than forty years and inspired countless other artists. In this critically acclaimed biography originally published in 1996 by Pantheon Books, Ira Nadel draws on extensive interviews with Cohen, as well as excerpts from his unpublished letters, journals, notebooks, songs, and other writings, to offer a full portrait of this enigmatic man and his artistic career. A new concluding chapter brings Cohen's story up-to-date, including the release of the albums Dear Heather, Ten New Songs, The Essential Leonard Cohen, and Blue Alert, as well as the publication of Book of Longing and the screening of the documentary film Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man.

Author Biography

Ira B. Nadel, Professor of English and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of British Columbia

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Root of the Chord	p. 5
Life in a Golden Coffin	p. 33
Passion Without Flesh	p. 51
Molecules Dancing in the Mountains	p. 71
Hopelessly Hollywood	p. 91
Cocktails in the Shaving Kit	p. 111
Black Photograph	p. 141
Ain't No Cure for Love	p. 163
Trumpets and a Curtain of Razor Blades	p. 181
Tibetan Desire	p. 201
New Scripture	p. 219
Plastic Algebra	p. 243
My Secret Life	p. 259
Afterword	p. 276
Bibliography	p. 288
Discography	p. 289
Acknowledgments	p. 291
Notes	p. 298
Index	p. 324
Permissions	p. 334
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