Matt Cohen

Canadian novelist, poet, short-fiction writer, and children's book author.

• Born: December 30, 1942
• Birthplace: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
• Died: December 2, 1999
• Place of death: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Biography

Matt Cohen was born into a Jewish family in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 1942. His father, Morris Cohen, was a chemist; his mother was Beatrice Cohen. After high school education in Ottawa, he graduated from the University of Toronto in 1964, doing graduate work in political science to gain an MA a year later. He lectured in political science at McMaster University briefly, before deciding to become a full-time writer. He did become writer-in-residence at a number of universities and was visiting professor at the University of Victoria in 1979, and at Bologna, Italy, in 1984. He also cofounded the Writers Union of Canada, which he chaired in 1985–86, negotiating successfully for a Public Lending Right program.

Cohen married publisher Patsy Aldana, by whom he had a son and a daughter, also inheriting two stepchildren. The family lived mainly in Toronto but also had a farm in the Kingston, Ontario, area. A writer of more than twenty books, Cohen eventually won a number of awards: the Toronto Arts Award, the National Magazine Award for Short Fiction twice, the John Glassco Translation Prize, the Harbourfront Festival Prize, and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction for 1999 for his novel Elizabeth and After, which also made the Globe Best Sellers List. He died of lung cancer in that year.

The central theme of a number of his short stories and novels is the search for genuine identity and self-knowledge. His first two published novellas, Korsoniloff and Johnny Crackle Sings, deal with alienated protagonists on the edge of insanity. His first and best-known short-story collection, Columbus and the Fat Lady, and Other Stories (1972), has a somber, sparse style and tone, though Cohen’s humor often comes through as bizarre, even surreal, in a typically Jewish manner. Although best known for his short stories, his four- volume series of novels set in the mythical town of Salem was a substantial work. The series consists of The Disinherited, The Colours of War, The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone, and Flowers of Darkness. The novels are loosely connected around various generations and places, giving a sense of Canadian cultural tensions and developments. Violence, sexual encounters, and intrigue are typical features of Cohen’s prose, but beneath these are attempts to find true identity. As a prose writer, he was constantly exploring new ways of representing the inner workings of his characters.

His fellow Canadian, Margaret Atwood, was a close friend and supporter of his work. Besides fiction, Cohen was a good translator, moving easily from English to French. He also wrote several children’s stories (under the pseudonym Teddy Jam) and two volumes of verse. One of his last novels was Last Seen, based on his brother’s battle with cancer, but strangely prophetic of his own. In 2007, his novel Emotional Arithmetic was adapted into a feature film starring Susan Sarandon.

Author Works

Children's Literature:

Night Cars, 1987

Doctor Kiss Says Yes, 1991

The Year of Fire, 1993

The Charlotte Stories, 1994

Jacob's Best Sisters, 1996

The Fishing Summer, 1997

This New Baby, 1998

ttuM, 1999

The Stoneboat, 1999

The Kid Line, 2001

Long Fiction:

Korsoniloff, 1969 (novella)

Johnny Crackle Sings, 1971 (novella)

The Disinherited, 1974

Wooden Hunters, 1975

The Colours of War, 1977

The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone, 1979

Flowers of Darkness, 1981

The Spanish Doctor, 1984

Nadine, 1987

Emotional Arithmetic, 1990

Freud: The Paris Notebooks, 1991

The Bookseller, 1993

Last Seen, 1997

Elizabeth and After, 1999

Nonfiction:

Typing: A Life in Twenty-Six Keys, 2001 (memoir)

Poetry:

Peach Melba, 1974

In Search of Leonardo, 1986 (illustrated by Tony Urquhart)

Short Fiction:

Columbus and the Fat Lady, and Other Stories, 1972

Too Bad Galahad, 1972

Night Flights: Stories New and Selected, 1978

The Leaves of Louise, 1978

The Expatriate: Collected Short Stories, 1982

Café le Dog, 1983

Life on This Planet, and Other Stories, 1985

Living on Water, 1989

Lives of the Mind Slaves: Selected Stories, 1994

Getting Lucky, 2000

Bibliography

Canton, Jeffrey. "The Sweet Second Life of Matt Cohen." The Globe and Mail, 19 Feb. 2000, www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/the-sweet-second-life-of-matt-cohen/article25455926/. Accessed 27 June 2017. Discusses Cohen's career writing and publishing books for younger readers.

Gibson, Grame, et al., editors. Uncommon Ground: A Celebration of Matt Cohen. Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2002. A volume composed of essays, excerpts, and interviews that pay homage to Cohen's work.

Kertzer, Jon. "Time and Its Victims: The Writing of Matt Cohen." Essays on Canadian Writing, vol. 17, 1980, pp. 93–102. Literary criticism of Cohen's work, focusing on his common themes and style.

Lousley, Cheryl. "Knowledge, Power and Place: Environmental Politics in the Fiction of Matt Cohen and David Adams Richards." Canadian Literature, vol. 195, 2007, pp. 11–30. Analyzes and compares particular works of Cohen and David Adams Richards to explore their perspectives on environmental conditions.

"Matt Cohen." Historica Canada: The Canadian Encyclopedia, 7 Oct. 2015, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/matt-cohen/. Accessed 27 June 2017. Overview of Cohen's life and writing career.