Songs from a Room: The Inside Story of Leonard Cohen

IT WAS IN 1956 that the work of Leonard Cohen first appeared before the general public in book form, an event that marked his transformation from unofficial poet laureate of McGill University to fully-fledged writer. While Anthony Eden grappled with the problems of Suez, the Soviets faced the war of the Hungarian Revolution and General Eisenhower began his last presidential term, the protest era was being cautiously ushered in by the Beat Generation. Although Leonard Cohen was essentially a child of the Fifties, he has come to be regarded as a figure of the Sixties when the poet/singer-songwriter became a new type of idol.