At the age of 32, he had already acquired modest distinction as a poet and novelist, especially after publishing Beautiful Losers earlier that year, but suddenly he was drawing crowds. Some 500 people came to see him perform in the Tory Building at a time when a poetry reading on campus would usually attract two dozen.
It was the '60s after all, and students were irresistibly drawn to the dark mystique of this Byronic enfant terrible, says Ken Chapman, '69 BA, '74 LLB, a commerce student at the U of A in 1966.
"I first came across him in the Tory building by happenstance and heard him play," says Chapman. "I kind of followed him around as part of the crowd, and that's when I realized I didn't want to be in commerce; I wanted to be in English." Under the spell of Cohen's aura, Chapman switched his major to English and economics.
"It was his persona, his attitude, his sense of humour," says Chapman. "It was an angst-ridden time for young people at university in the '60s, and his words were very resonant. But it wasn't the politics, it was the romance."
Cohen's popularity gave rise to parties at Edmonton's Hotel Macdonald, where he was staying. It also brought curious fans to the front desk, overwhelming hotel staff. Cohen soon found himself thrown out with no place to stay. That's when he met two U of A undergraduates, Barbara and Elaine, who offered him their basement. Their hospitality and love, "graceful and green as a stem," inspired one of his best-known songs, "Sisters of Mercy."
Cohen's success in Edmonton meant that one week turned into five, with more appearances, including one at the Yardbird Suite.
From Ordinary Person to Celebrity
"He basically went from an ordinary person to a celebrity while he was here, with all the attributes of that - fans and groupies," says Kim Solez, a U of A professor of transplant pathology who, until 2011, spearheaded Edmonton's annual Leonard Cohen Night.
It was during those five weeks in 1966, Solez says, that Cohen discovered the power and reach of the tower of song. On Dec. 4 that year, he wrote a letter to his lover and muse, Marianne Ihlen (of "So Long, Marianne" fame), about his intentions to become a songwriter.
Chapman is working to have two statues built to commemorate Cohen - one by the Tory Building on North Campus and one downtown by the site of the old Alberta Hotel.
"I imagine him looking longingly up into one of the hotel room windows," Chapman says.
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