Trivia

His "Greatest Hits" collection was voted the most depressing album ever, the vote made by a British magazine.

During the 1990s, he became a monk in California in a quest for spirituality.

Was engaged to Rebecca De Mornay.

Has two children with his ex-girlfriend, Suzanne Elrod. Son, Adam Cohen, born 1972; and daughter, Lorca Cohen, born 1974.

Spent part of the late 1990s living in a Buddhist monastery in California.

His Zen name is Jikan, which means "Silent One".

Is in the same branch of Buddhism as Peter Matthiessen, Michael O'Keefe, Gary Snyder, Peter Coyote, Bernie Glassman, Reb Anderson, Philip Whalen, Richard Baker, Pat O'Hara (Enkyo O'Hara), Soen Roshi and John Daido Loori.

Marianne Ihlen for whom 'So Long, Marianne' was written, died on July 29, 2016 in Oslo.

Was of Polish Jewish, Lithuanian Jewish, and Russian Jewish descent.

Son Adam Cohen released self-titled debut album (1998).

Daughter Lorca Cohen mothered a daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen (b. 2 February 2011 in Los Angeles), with singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

The student of Zen Master, Sasaki Roshi.

American folk singer Judy Collins is generally credited with popularizing Cohen's work, as she was the very first artist to record his songs "Suzanne" and "Dress Rehearsal Rag" for her album "In My Life" (1966).

He was 32 years old when he released his first album.

His song "Suzanne" was inspired by the platonic relationship he enjoyed with friend Suzanne Verdal, then-girlfriend of Canadian sculptor Armand Vaillancourt. The song, however, was first recorded by Judy Collins in 1966 and later released by Cohen in 1967 as a single from his album "Songs of Leonard Cohen".

He was awarded the OC (Officer of the Order of Canada) on 19 April 1991, the CC (Companion of the Order of Canada) on 10 October 2002 and the GOQ (Grand-Officer of the National Order of Quebec) on an unknown date for his services to Music.

Pictured on a set of nine Canadian commemorative postage stamps, using three designs, issued 21 September 2019, the 85th anniversary of his birth. Price on day of issue for the "permanent" stamps was 90¢. Three of the stamps had denominations of $1.27, for letter mail to the USA; $1.90, for oversize domestic mail up to 50 grams; and $2.65, for international letter mail.

He is referenced in the work of several other music artists. He is mentioned by name in the Nirvana song "Pennyroyal Tea" (lead singer Kurt Cobain was a great fan of his), the Mercury Rev song "A Drop in Time", the Enrique Bunbury song "Los Restos Del Naufragio" and the Marillion song "Montreal".

He was a poet and an acclaimed singer-songwriter.

In the spring of 1968, Cohen had a brief relationship with musician Janis Joplin while staying at the Chelsea Hotel, and the song of the same name references this relationship.

Cohen's most famous song, "Hallelujah", was first released on his studio album Various Positions in 1984.

Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not begin a music career until 1967 at the age of 33.

In September 1960, Cohen bought a house on the Greek island of Hydra with $1,500 that he had inherited from his grandmother.

His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships.

The mother of Cohen's children Adam and Lorca, Suzanne Elrod, was not the Suzanne that Cohen's famous song was about, as the song was about Suzanne Verdal, a lady that Cohen was never romantic with.

Cohen is mentioned in the Nirvana song "Pennyroyal Tea" from the band's 1993 release, In Utero. Kurt Cobain wrote, "Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld/So I can sigh eternally.".

A posthumous album, Thanks for the Dance, was released in November 2019, his fifteenth and final studio album.

Cohen was one of the inspirations for Matt Bissonnette and Steven Clark's film Looking for Leonard (2002).

He released three albums in the final four years of his life: Old Ideas (2012), Popular Problems (2014), and You Want It Darker (2016), the last of which was released three weeks before his death.

The Leonard Cohen song "So Long, Marianne" is the title of the season 4, episode 9 episode of This is Us. The song is played and its meaning is discussed as an important plot point of the episode.

He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.

In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.

At one point, Leonard Cohen's biggest popularity was in France. So much so that the President of France was known to take his books and records every time he went on vacation, and if a French woman owned only one record album, it was bound to be Leonard Cohen.