Everyone has heard of Leonard Cohen, but they only know him as a singer-songwriter. Only a few are aware that he also penned the novel "The Favourite Game", one of two novels, the other being "Beautiful Losers".
There are very good reasons why most people have never heard of "The Favourite Game". In 1966, at the age of 32, Cohen reinvented himself as a singer-songwriter because he couldn't make a living as a poet and novelist in Canada. Seven years earlier, Cohen had been awarded a $2,000 Canada Council grant. He used it to live cheaply in London and even more cheaply on the Greek island of Hydra while working on the novel, then titled "Beauty at Close Quarters". But when he returned to Canada in November, 1960, it was rejected by McClelland & Stewart. Jack McClelland objected to Cohen writing prose. He found the novel tedious, egotistical, disgusting and morbid in its preoccupation with sex. McClelland worried about the autobiographical content and suggested radical revisions without guaranteeing publication after those changes.
"The Favourite Game" was published in England in 1963, and in New York in 1964, and sold about 1,000 copies in all. To read it now, click here.
