Irving Layton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Israel Pincu Lazarovitch (1912-03-12)March 12, 1912 Târgu Neamţ, Romania |
| Died | January 4, 2006(2006-01-04) (aged 93) Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | Canadian Romanian |
| Notable awards | Governor General's Award, Order of Canada |
Irving Peter Layton,OC (March 12, 1912 – January 4, 2006) was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography (2001), Layton foughtPuritanism throughout his life:[1]
Layton's work had provided the bolt of lightning that was needed to split open the thin skin of conservatism and complacency in the poetry scene of the preceding century, allowing modern poetry to expose previously unseen richness and depth.
Irving Layton was born on March 12, 1912, as Israel Pincu Lazarovitch inTârgu Neamţ toRomanianJewish parents, Moses and Klara (née Moscovitch) Lazarovitch.[2] He migrated with his family toMontreal, Quebec in 1913, where they lived in the impoverishedSt. Urbain Street neighbourhood, later made famous by the novels ofMordecai Richler. There, Layton and his family (his father died when Irving was 13) faced daily struggles with, among others, Montreal's French Canadians, who were uncomfortable with the growing numbers of Jewish newcomers.[3] Layton, however, identified himself not as an observant Jew but rather as afreethinker.
Layton graduated from Alexandra Elementary School and attendedBaron Byng High School, where his life was changed when he was introduced to such poets asTennyson,Walter Scott,Wordsworth,Byron, andShelley; the novelistsJane Austen andGeorge Eliot; the essayistsFrancis Bacon,Oliver Goldsmith,Samuel Johnson, andJonathan Swift; and alsoShakespeare andDarwin. He was befriended byDavid Lewis and became very interested in politics and social theory.[4] He joined theYoung People's Socialist League or YPSL (commonly pronounced "Yipsel"), which Lewis led.[4] He began readingKarl Marx andNietzsche. His activities in YPSL were deemed a threat to the high school administration, and he was asked to leave before graduating in 1930.[5] It was Lewis who introduced Layton toA. M. Klein.[5] Lewis asked Klein to be Layton's Latin tutor so he could pass the junior matriculation exams.[5] Lewis gave him $10 to pay the fee for the exam and he passed.[5] It was also during his time with Klein that he became interested in the sound of poetry.[5]
Klein and I met once weekly at Fletcher's Field just across from the YHMA [sic] on Mt. Royal Avenue, and I vividly recall the first lesson: Virgil'sAeneid, Book II:I[6]
...hearing Klein roll off the Virgilian hexameters in a beautiful orotund voice that rose above the traffic, I think it was then that I realized how lovely and very moving the sound of poetry could be. I must confess my Latin wasn't sufficient to appreciate the sense that Virgil was making with his marvelous hexameters, but Klein's zeal and enthusiasm, his forceful delivery, his very genuine love of language, of poetry, all came through to me at that time. And I think that was most fortunate for me. ...[7]
Klein published Layton's first poem inThe McGilliad, the underground campus journal he was editing atMcGill University.[8]
Despite Layton's limited educational opportunities, his lack of a high school diploma, and his limited finances, he enrolled inMacdonald College (McGill) in 1934 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture.
While in college, he was well-known in artistic circles for his anti-bourgeois attitudes and his criticism of politics. He quickly found that his true interest was poetry, so he pursued a career as a poet, and soon became friends with the emerging young poets of his day, including fellow Canadian poetsJohn Sutherland,Raymond Souster, andLouis Dudek. In the 1940s, Layton and his fellow Canadian poets rejected the older generation of poets, as well as criticsNorthrop Frye; their efforts helped define the tone of the post-war generation of poets in Canada. Essentially, they argued that English Canadian poets should set their own style, independent of British styles and influences, and should reflect the social realities of the day.
In 1936 Layton met Faye Lynch, whom he married in 1938. When Layton graduated from Macdonald College in 1939, he moved with Faye toHalifax, where he worked odd jobs, including a stint as a Fuller Brush salesman. Soon disenchanted with his life, Layton decided to return to Montreal. He began teaching English to recent immigrants to make ends meet and continued doing so for many years.
Indecisive about his future and enraged by Hitler's violence toward Jews and destruction of European culture, Layton enlisted in the Canadian army in 1942. While training atPetawawa, Layton met Betty Sutherland, an accomplished painter (and later poet), and a half-sister to actorDonald Sutherland. Layton soon divorced Faye and married Betty. They had two children together: Max Reuben (1946) and Naomi Parker (1950). In 1943 Layton was given an honourable discharge from the army and returned to Montreal, where he became involved with severalliterary magazines including the seminalNorthern Review, which he co-edited withJohn Sutherland.
Layton's involvement withDavid Lewis and theYoung People's Socialist League developed into activism with theCo-operative Commonwealth Federation (Lewis was the National Secretary at the time). Because of his YPSL activities Layton wasblacklisted in the 1930s and banned from entering the United States for the next two decades. While for a time he still considered himself aMarxist, he becameanti-Communist at the lectures Lewis gave at YPSL[9] and broke with many on the left with his support of theVietnam War.[10]
"Of the poets who emerged in Montréal during this period," of the early 1950s, "Layton was the most outspoken and flamboyant. His satire was generally directed against bourgeois dullness, and his famous love poems were erotically explicit."[11]
By the mid-1950s, Layton's activism and poetry had made him a staple on theCBC televised debating programFighting Words, where he earned a reputation as a formidable debater. The publication ofA Red Carpet for the Sun in 1959 secured Layton's national reputation while the many books of poetry that followed eventually gave him an international reputation, never as high however, in the United States and Britain as it was in some countries where Layton was read in translation.
In 1946 Layton received an M.A. in economics and political science from McGill, with a thesis onHarold Laski. Three years later he began teaching English, history, and political science at the Jewish parochial high school Herzliah (a branch of theUnited Talmud Torahs of Montreal). He was an influential teacher, and some of his students became writers and artists. Among his students was television magnateMoses Znaimer. Layton continued to teach for the greater part of his life: as a teacher of modern English and American poetry atSir George Williams University (nowConcordia University) and as a tenured professor at Toronto'sYork University from 1969 to 1978. At York one of his first students wasJoseph Pivato who became a writer, critic and academic. Layton delivering many lectures and readings throughout Canada. Layton pursued his PhD in 1948, but he abandoned it due to the demands of his already hectic professional life. In 1976, he received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University.[12]
In the late 1950s, friends introduced Layton to Aviva Cantor, who had emigrated to Montreal from her native Australia in 1955. After several years of painful indecision, Layton and Betty separated, and Layton moved in with Aviva. The two had a son, David, in 1964. Though Layton remained legally married to Betty, his relationship with Aviva lasted more than twenty years, ending only in the late 1970s when Aviva left.
Layton also metLeonard Cohen, with whom he remained friends for life and who dedicated his 2007 bookThe Book of Longing to Layton. Cohen also dedicated his songGo No More A-Roving on his 2004 albumDear Heather to Layton. The song was basen upon a poem byLord Byron.
Layton was also admired by such diverse artists and writers asAllen Ginsberg,Bob Dylan, among other poets.
In 1974 Irving met Harriet Bernstein, who was enrolled in his Poetry Workshop at York University. Although he was still living with Aviva, Irving and Harriet began an affair that continued for four years, culminating in their legal marriage in November 1978. In order to marry Harriet, Irving finally took the required legal action to divorce Betty, which he had neglected to do until this time. In 1981 a daughter, Samantha Clara, was born to Harriet and Irving. The marriage ended in a bitterly contested divorce. Layton then met Anna (Annette) Pottier and invited her to be his housekeeper, although it soon became apparent that she would play a far greater role in his life. Although 48 years his junior she became his fifth and last wife. They lived briefly inNiagara-on-the-Lake in the fall of 1982 and then spent nearly a year inOakville, Ontario, before moving to the Montreal district ofNotre-Dame-de-Grâce at the end of 1983. It was here that Layton wrote his memoirWaiting For the Messiah and with Pottier's support saw to the publication of his final books and translations. The couple eventually agreed that Pottier needed to begin a life of her own, and she moved out on March 1, 1995. Friends took care of Layton after he was diagnosed withAlzheimer's disease. He died at theMaimonides Geriatric Centre inCôte Saint-Luc at the age of 93 on January 4, 2006.[13]
In 2015 Pottier published her memoir,Good As Gone: My Life With Irving Layton (Dundurn Press, March 14, 2015).[14]
Throughout the 1950s and on into the early 1990s Layton travelled widely abroad and became especially popular inSouth Korea and Italy. In 1981 these two nations nominated him for theNobel Prize for Literature. (The prize that year was instead awarded to Colombian novelistGabriel García Márquez.) Among his many awards during his career was theGovernor-General's Award forA Red Carpet for the Sun in 1959. In 1976 he was made an Officer of theOrder of Canada. He was the first non-Italian to be awarded thePetrarch Award for Poetry.[3]
In his lifetime Layton attracted some criticism for his abrasiveness, egotism, and acrimonious feuds, including one with biographerElspeth Cameron.[13] He is remembered by many as one of the first Canadian rebels of poetry, politics, and philosophy. At Layton's funeral,Leonard Cohen,Moses Znaimer, andDavid Solway were among those who gave eulogies.
A street in Montreal has been named Irving Layton Avenue. It is located behind St. Richards Church and close to the corner of Guelph Road and Parkhaven Avenue.[15]
An online scholarly journal,The Bull Calf (founded by Kait Pinder and J.A. Weingarten), is named in honour of Layton's famous poem of the same name.
He is consideredLeonard Cohen's literary mentor. Leonard Cohen once said of Layton, "I taught him how to dress, he taught me how to live forever."[16]
He is depicted in the upcoming drama television seriesSo Long, Marianne, in which he will be portrayed byPeter Stormare.[17]
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy University of Toronto.[20]
Except where noted, discographical information courtesy University of Toronto.[20]
