Introduction: You don't know Leonard Cohen / David R. Shumway

part I: Creative life. The life of a troubadour / Ira B. Nadel ; The poetry and prose : "almost like the blues" / Julian Stannard ; Songwriting : hymns of the heretic / Alan Light ; Assembling albums in the tower of song / Anthony DeCurtis

part II: Musical contexts. Folk music / Gillian A. M. Mitchell ; Singer-songwriters / David R. Shumway ; Unrocking rock & roll : hiding songs, war horses, and cabaret blues / Eric Weisbard

part III: Religious contexts. Judaism : at the peripheral center / Elliot R. Wolfson ; Zen and the East : Leonard Cohen as Buddhist monk and Bodhisattva poet / Christophe Lebold ; Christianity : the little Jew who wrote the Bible and much about Jesus / Marcia Pally

part IV: Cultural contexts. Canadian literature / Ian Rae ; World literature / Francis Mus ; Cohen's cinematic appeal / Laura Cameron and Jim Shedden ; Neurotic affiliations : Montreal and belonging / Erin MacLeod ; Boudoir poet : a thousand kisses deep with Leonard Cohen / David Yaffe ; For the matriarchy : women and the music / Heather S. Arnet ; The counterculture / Sarah Hill ; Politics : insincerely L. Cohen / David Boucher

part V: Reception and legacy. "You know who I am" : from writer to rock star / Loren Glass ; Documentary (re)presentations : "you know who I am" / Robert de Young ; "I'll wear a mask for you" / Lucy J. Boucher ; How to be an aged rock star / David R. Shumway ; Covers : six hundred and forty-nine broken "Hallelujah"s / Ray Padgett ; The archives : "I hope you're keeping some kind of record" / Robert de Young.