Both novels reprinted in UK and Australia/NZ

[jarkko]

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/84304-page.html

Blue Door opens to Cohen
01.05.09 Anna-Marie Julyan

Blue Door is riding the wave of a Leonard Cohen renaissance by reprinting his novels this July to coincide with the singer-songwriter's tour dates in the UK.

Cohen's only two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, first published in the 1960s, are being repackaged by Patrick Janson-Smith, publisher at Blue Door, after falling out of print in the UK.

Blue Door acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, Australia and New Zealand, from McClelland & Stewart. With requests for Cohen to appear on "The Andrew Marr Show" and recent successful covers of his hit song "Hallelujah", Janson-Smith thinks the books will resonate with both older and younger generations.

He said: "I've always been a huge fan and he's now reaching out to a new generation. I think he's better now than he has ever been. He's going to get a lot of attention."

The Favourite Game, published in 1963, describes the coming of age of Lawrence Breavman, the only son of a Jewish Montreal family. Published three years later, Beautiful Losers follows a love triangle and examines friendship, sex and spirituality.

"They are quite experimental, quite erotic in various places and very beautifully written—the man is a poet and he writes in the language of poets," said Janson-Smith.

Published in paperback and priced £8.99 in tall paperback format, both contain additional
biographical material, reviews and links to websites. Janson-Smith added he would like to republish more of Cohen's work if the books are successful.

[ladydi]

Thanks Jarkko,

That is excellent! I would hope the same would apply to the US but doubt it. Perhaps Canada? Otherwise I will do an internet order from the UK....or, make an overnight trip I know it would be well worth the lost hours.

All the best,
Diana

[jarkko]

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blog ... books.aspx

Leonard Cohen’s forthcoming series of UK concerts has turned into a book tour. Montreal’s unofficial poet laureate’s two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, will be re-released in Great Britain by Blue Door, a new imprint of HarperCollins, after being out-of-print for several years.

But why now?

“There’s a very obvious answer to that, which is he’s probably more popular now than he’s ever been, and is reaching out to a whole new generation,” said publisher Patrick Jason-Smith in an interview with the Post.

He was at the Frankfurt Book Fair last year, talking to Marilyn Bideman, Director of Rights and Contracts for McClelland & Stewart, when he spotted the Cohen books in her catalogue. He snapped up UK and Commonwealth rights - not including Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - to both books, which Penguin last published in the UK in 2001 (not including a limited edition released by The Independent newspaper in 2007 as part of a series on banned books).

“Why they let them go I do not understand,” he said. “I found it most peculiar, but of course I wasn’t going to complain.”

The Favourite Game, a coming of age story, was first published in 1963, while Beautiful Losers, about a love triangle, came out in 1966. Janson-Smith believes both books are as relevant as ever.

“I think they hold up very well. Perhaps they’re more accessible. I think the world has moved on and maybe the world has caught up with Leonard Cohen.”

That may explain this worldwide mini-renaissance in Cohen’s novels: Text, a highly-regarded indie publisher in Melbourne, re-released the books last year.

“We have long wanted to publish Leonard Cohen, so when the opportunity came up we leapt at it,” said publisher Michael Heyward in an e-mail to the Post. “The response to the novels has been exactly what we hoped for. They have been widely reviewed and discussed, and sales have been steady. If we are to understand writers and artists we need access to their life’s work, and we are proud of the small role we have played in helping that process along.”

According to Bideman, both books are currently in print in 17 countries and 15 languages.

The paperbacks will hit UK bookstores this July to coincide with Cohen’s tour. Janson-Smith said there is already “massive interest” from booksellers.

“A lot of people don’t know he’s a novelist, which I’m intending to change if I can.”

He hasn’t yet talked to Cohen about the reissues.

“He’s a very busy guy.”

[tomsakic]

New Australian/New Zealand releases:



Website: http://www.textpublishing.com.au/books- ... ard-cohen/
http://www.textpublishing.com.au/books- ... ul-losers/
http://www.textpublishing.com.au/books- ... rite-game/

They have quite big scans on the site (too big for the forum).

[tomsakic]

Very special release is coming in Canada this September, from Leonard's original publishing house McClelland and Stewart, in occasion of his 75th birthday - his two novels in one book for the first time ever!



http://www.mcclelland.com/catalog/displ ... 0771021916

Leonard Cohen’s two classic novels now available together in this collector’s edition.

This beautifully designed collector’s hardcover edition brings together Leonard Cohen’s acclaimed novels in a single volume. Published originally in 1963 and 1966, these novels have had a recent resurgence of popularity and sales around the world.

In his unforgettable debut novel, The Favourite Game, Cohen boldly etches the youth and early manhood of Lawrence Breavman, only son of an old Jewish family in Montreal. Beautiful Losers is Cohen’s classic novel of the sixties. Funny, harrowing, and deeply moving, it is his most defiant and uninhibited work.

[MT Baldy]

I wish they'd publish the 2-in-1 in the UK (with that cover)... I guess I could order it from Canada.

[tomsakic]

The UK reprints are coming in July so there's very small chance to see something similar to this double edition. Anyhow, the US editions of novels weren't printed for years so there's a big possibility to see the same edition from Leonard's US publisher later this year (which will be easier to buy). His novels were printed by Vintage in the 1990s, now he has new poetry publisher (Ecco), but they don't have fiction I believe, and question is are the novels' copyrights still tied to Vintage.

[caz]

I still have the copies that I bought about 1970, and that cost about 7/6. Beautiful Losers is rather the worse for wear, since my sister had it at the time she suffered a house fire. Luckily she, her family and the books all survived relatively unscathed, but those pages certainly are blackened! There's a squashed fly on page 76 of The Favourite Game; there's something quite touching about it being there, so I haven't moved it. It must have flown in one summer's day whilst I was reading the book outside, and there it has remained, frozen in time and preserved long beyond a fly's expected physical being. I sometimes wish I was back in that day......

Ah nostalgia! It isn't what it used to be....