Two-Gun Cohen - Softcover

Levy, Daniel S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312309317 ISBN 13: 9780312309312

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 2002

Synopsis

A chunky Jewish battler from the East End of London, a con man, cardsharp, and charlatan-with-a-heart who became a bodyguard to Sun Yat-sen and a general in the Chinese Army, Morris "Two-Gun" Cohen was one of the most unusual adventurers of the twentieth century. He earned the name "Two-Gun" because wherever he went he always packed two pistols, which he wasn't afraid to use. Born into devout piety and dire poverty, Cohen did not appear to have a promising future. The eldest son of Orthodox Jewish parents, he nevertheless quickly developed into an incorrigible juvenile delinquent. Arrested in 1900 for picking pockets, Cohen was sent to reform school and then shipped off to western Canada. There he spent years wandering from Manitoba to British Columbia, picking pockets and hustling as he went. He regularly played poker at a Chinese gambling den in Saskatoon and one evening stumbled into the middle of an armed robbery. He did what came naturally to him, but what was unheard of at the time - he came to the defense of a Chinese man and knocked the robber out. That selfless act gained him the respect of the Chinese community; and a career in the Chinese revolution. After sailing to China in 1922, Cohen became an aide to President Sun Yat-sen and an influential man in Nationalist China, ending up as a general despite the fact that he never learned Chinese.

About this title

Review:

Cohen had an interesting life, and Daniel S. Levy, a reporter for Time magazine, has carefully and colorfully laid it out in this new biography. Mr. Levy has sifted through a voluminous historical record, interviewed those still around who knew Cohen from the old days and, in particular, sorted out truth from legend in piecing together Cohen's peripatetic life.

This sorting out is particularly commendable, given that Cohen's life had, until now, been understood through "The Life and Times of General Two-Gun Cohen," a biography that Cohen wrote in the 1950's with Charles Drage, a writer. The Drage book, Mr. Levy shows convincingly, is filled with sensationalizing details that just happen not to be true.

Perhaps sitting around the lobbies of hotels in his waning years, Cohen was a blowhard, but he emphatically did not lead a boring life... Cohen's life was intertwined with the turmoil of the 20th century in China, to which Mr. Levy proves himself a reliable and informative guide.... Cohen was far from the major player he made himself out to be, but as a minor player, he deserves the spot in the historical panorama that Mr. Levy has given him. -- The New York Times, September 15, 1997

Daniel Levy, a Time magazine reporter, has more than done his subject proud. In tracing Cohen's metamorphosis, Levy has unearthed every police blotter his subject ever disgraced, interviewed every person who remembers Cohen and read every scrap of information about him.

Levy's particularly good at scene-setting, at creating the sounds and flavour of East London, of the Canadian Prairies during the century's first decades, of China's bloody struggle to modernize, of the casual brutality of its Japanese conquerors.... The Cohen we get is an uneducated, bumptious fellow, full of swagger and bravado. He is a card sharp, a gambler and a scam artist, who lucked into his China connection through gambling ties established in Saskatoon. Nevertheless, he is also a man genuinely committed to China ... enormously generous, capable of great warmth and devoted to his family, upon which he lavished expensive gifts. There's a real poignancy to Levy's account of his failed marriage, the end of which marked the end of his active life. -- The Globe and Mail, September 13, 1997

I used to joke about Two-Gun Cohen but it was not until I read Mr. Levy's book that I realized what a curious life he had led. A very thorough, ingenious piece of research. -- Saul Bellow

From Kirkus Reviews:

Soon after the turn of the century a Jewish Cockney adventurer arrived in Canada, seeking his--or somebody's--fortune. How he evolved into a general in the Chinese Republican Army, and a notorious soldier of fortune as well, is carefully recounted by Levy, a reporter for Time magazine, in his debut biography. Morris Cohen, scion of a religious Jewish family, spent his youth much like the Artful Dodger, picking pockets in the East End of London, precincts which were haunted by the likes of Jack the Ripper. After multiple arrests and a stint in a reformatory, the young hustler made his way to the Canadian prairies, where he became a sometime carny huckster and a full-time card shark, often attracting the attention of the local constabulary. But after service in the Great War, through force of personality and a loud voice, he became something of a community leader, especially among the beleaguered Chinese of the Canadian West. His affinity for the underdog soon made him their sole Caucasian lodge brother and eventually brought him to the attention of the father of the Chinese Republic, Sun Yat-sen. Cohen instantly became a Sun worshipper and, with guns on both ample hips, a bodyguard to the great man and, later, factotum to his widow, the redoubtable Soong. Through a hellish internment during WW II and the turbulent events in postwar China, Two-Gun plied his adventurer's trade. Alas, there's no retirement plan for that trade, and the aging rogue, without savings, became a tiresome M nchausen, ever expansive about his powers. Levy attempts to set the tangled record straight after exhaustive, detailed research and interviews on three continents. The man he brings to life isn't Lawrence of Arabia; he is a sweeter character. He is Cohen of China. A diverting tale of the life and crimes of a unique Old China Hand, intertwined with the story of modern China. (8 pages photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312309317
• ISBN 13: 9780312309312
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416