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Irving Layton
Irving Layton
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Layton spent his childhood years in a poor,
crowded immigrant household in Montreal's Yiddish-speaking
neighbourhood, where his father was, in Layton's words, "a
shadow on the wall" communing only with his God, and
his mother a formidable presence who held the family together.
At the age of 93, Irving's older brother Hyman is outspoken
and unforgiving in his assessment of a family that cared little
for the remarkable child in their midst.
Resourceful and determined, Layton, during the '40s and '50s,
while supporting himself with a variety of teaching jobs,
struggled, along with a small group of likeminded spirits,
to lay the foundations for a modern Canadian literature in
a country whose own poetry was neither published nor read.
The breakthrough came with the publication of A Red Carpet
for the Sun, and Layton's mastery of the new medium, television,
stirred significant interest in what was always most important
to him: poetry. Former students reveal what an amazing odyssey
it was, and the women in Layton's life testify to the remarkable
force of his personality. Aviva Layton, who spent more than
20 years with him, talks about the highs and lows of living
with the poet. Anna Pottier, Layton's last companion, speaks
movingly about their life together in his declining years.
And Harriet Bernstein, whose brief marriage to Layton ended
sadly in the early '80s, breaks her 20-year silence to speak
publicly, for the first time, about her years with Layton.
Original Air Date - November 19, 2002
Links
Irving
Layton (from the University of Toronto library)
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