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Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Layton's satire is generally directed against bourgeois dullness photo by Lawrence Eddy. In , honourably discharged from the army, Layton joined the co-operative and became an editor of First Statement Press. Scott, P. Page, A. The younger group was adamant that poetry must express social realities in order to remain relevant, and that Canadian poets must forge their own identity rather than look to England for inspiration.
Catherine St. Having finally earned his M. A charismatic teacher, Layton had found the vocation he would continue in for the greater part of his life: as a lecturer at Sir George Williams now Concordia University, as a tenured professor at York University in the s, and as poet-in-residence at the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto while, in addition, delivering countless lectures and readings throughout Canada.
Shortly afterwards, in , Betty moved to California with Naomi while Max stayed with his father and Aviva until moving out at the age of sixteen. A shy and almost docile man who felt he existed to visit the synagogue and study the Talmud in his small dark bedroom, Moishe had little direct contact with his children. Yet it was his strong sense of the Divine, of the Poetic, which would make its mark on the yet unhatched poet.
At thirteen years of age, after the death of his father in and after graduating from Alexandra Elementary School, Irving became a businessman--peddling household goods to Montrealers to the delight of his mother and sisters who considered this a worthwhile career. But despite their protests, Irving abandoned his short-lived and surprisingly successful stint as a door-to-door salesman and decided to enroll in Baron Byng High School where young Irving would be changed forever.
Layton recalls hearing Mr. Saunders, his tenth grade English teacher, read Tennyson's ballad "The Revenge": "I'd never heard the English language so beautifully read, so powerfully rendered, and I remember sitting quietly in my seat and listening enraptured as the sounds filled the room His hunger for knowledge was equalled only by that for truth, which led Layton into exploring political and philosophical thought.
Among other writers, Layton began to read Marx and Nietszche, and though he began to deem himself a socialist, in later years Layton identified with the New Democratic Party of Canada. He joined the Young People's Socialist League for a short time, and had fierce debates with budding politicians such as David Lewis and poets such as A. With his "radical" ideas, Layton had become a threat to the Baron Byng administrative, and he was forced to leave before graduating.
With little money, Layton had few options for higher education. Layton was writing more and more poetry, yet it did not attract the attention his later works would. However, at MacDonald College Layton wrote a column for the student newspaper "Failte Ye Times" which is where Layton's left-wing politics and radical ideas came into public view.
In fact, some of the articles aroused so much suspicion by the students at "Mac" that years later Layton was blacklisted from entering the U. In response to the articles he was writing, Layton founded the "Social Research Club" which served as a forum for opposing political views and featured speakers such as Dr. Norman Bethune. After years of participating in Montreal's social and political debates on a regular basis at places like Horn's Cafeteria, Layton's debating skills were formidable, and it was in that Layton and a schoolmate took on the Oxford-Cambridge debating team and won.
Layton's speaking skills came to be his trademark, drawing large audiences at his peak. In the mid s, Layton met and befriended Louis Dudek , another young poet from Montreal. Their friendship was strong, but they often argued about their conflicting ideas about poetry, and their later feuds were much publicized. At this time, Layton continued to work odd jobs and still had no serious aspirations of becoming a writer, although one of Layton's short stories won the McGill Daily 's prize.
On the advice of his brother who had been living in the U. The year was , and Layton met Faye Lynch, the self-sufficient daughter of a middle-class family whom he would marry in Realizing that he had married a woman he pitied but didn't love and being disenchanted by his life in general, Layton decided, one evening, to return to Montreal.
His first book of poetry, Here and Now, was published in He married Betty Sutherland - the step-sister of the actor Donald Sutherland - with whom he had a son and daughter, a year later.
To augment his meagre earnings from poetry, Layton taught at a Jewish high school, and at Montreal's Jewish Public Library. Eventually he lectured part-time at Sir George Williams University. He also taught English at Toronto's York University during the s. His students adored his firebrand style.
Among them was the poet and singer Leonard Cohen, who became a friend. He taught me how to live forever," Cohen said of their relationship. Layton, the "Picasso of poetry", had a complicated private life: marrying a former student, encouraging lovers to change their names - his fifth wife, Annette, became Anna - writing a vitriolic book about an ex-wife.
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