London: Secker & Warbug, 1963. First Edition. 223 pp. Hardcover: NEAR FINE. Dust Wrapper: NEAR FINE. Square spine, small stain to top of text block, crisp leaves without marks or inscriptions. Clipped wrapper is bright, with modest toning. A lovely copy.

The first American edition of the author's first book of prose. In this, his much-loved first novel, Leonard Cohen etches the youth and early manhood of Lawrence Breavman, the only son of wealthy Jewish parents in Montreal. “In the 1960s Leonard Cohen was just about the coolest literary figure around. A young poet who lived the Bohemian lifestyle associated with the poets of popular fiction, who spoke like a man of profound mysteries, who wrote both hopefully and cynically of love and of the mystical in the mundane. And a folksinger to boot. You know how people were always saying Bob Dylan was the poet of pop music? Well, Leonard Cohen was a singer-songwriter in the same class who really was a poet”. Editoreric.com.