'the combined Picasso and Mae West of Canadian poetry'

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I've never read Irving Layton (RIP), but that's the weirdest/best description I've ever seen in an obituary.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 13 January 2006 07:32 (nineteen years ago)

Don't know why there weren't more responses to this thread. This guy is definitely a topic for further investigation.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 14 January 2006 01:44 (nineteen years ago)

i guess. he sounds kind of obnoxious. but maybe entertaining.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 14 January 2006 02:21 (nineteen years ago)

I know I for one enjoyed his website- his bio, which I presume he wrote, and the note to students about how to research their term papers. I also enjoyed the anecdote on the memorial blog in which he did Wilson Pickett's "Ninety-Nine And A Half" a few digits better.

Things I found of interest: the guy was Leonard Cohen's mentor, his Selected Poems were introduced by teh pinefox's mentor, Hugh Kenner, he seems to have written something about "the inescapable lousiness of growing old," and he carried on a "voluminous correspondence" with both Robert Creeley and, um, Jonathan Williams.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 14 January 2006 02:36 (nineteen years ago)

The end result of this is that I'll probably ending up buying a few of the Mordecai Richler books in the discount pile at McNally Robinson.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 14 January 2006 02:43 (nineteen years ago)

I made that up about teh pinefox. The rest, it's all true.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 14 January 2006 06:03 (nineteen years ago)

I was gonna say.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 14 January 2006 08:39 (nineteen years ago)

Conscience: self-esteem with a halo.
Irving Layton

God is indeed dead. He died of self-horror when He saw the creature He had made in His own image.
Irving Layton

Idealist: a cynic in the making.
Irving Layton

If poetry is like an orgasm, an academic can be likened to someone who studies the passion-stains on the bedsheets.
Irving Layton

In Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada has at last produced a political leader worthy of assassination.
Irving Layton

My neighbor doesn't want to be loved as much as he wants to be envied.
Irving Layton

Progress of a marriage: "There was a time when you couldn't make me happy. Now the time has come when you can make me unhappy."
Irving Layton

We love in another's soul whatever of ourselves we can deposit in it; the greater the deposit, the greater the love.
Irving Layton

When you argue with your inferiors, you convince them of only one thing: they are as clever as you.
Irving Layton

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 14 January 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 14 January 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

As well as poem commissions, I am now taking commissions for bronze heads on stacks of books.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 14 January 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

"I taught him how to dress, he taught me how to live forever," Cohen once said.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 14 January 2006 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

Boy, I'm having trouble finding any actual poems! Second page of Google and this is as close as I've gotten, clicking on links to three poems:
the first poem:
Cette page est introuvable

the second poem:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /~syentzer/1102/s99/works/layton.htm on this server.

the third poem:
Sorry, the page you requested was not found

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 14 January 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

Is this some kind of elaborate hoax?

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 14 January 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

i looked for poems the other day too. maybe i need to use canadian google.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 15 January 2006 06:32 (nineteen years ago)

Googleh

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Sunday, 15 January 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

His poems are a scarcity online, so your best shot in this case is the local library.

― Arethusa, Monday, 16 January 2006 03:06 (nineteen years ago)

Haven't you people read this message from his homepage?

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Monday, 16 January 2006 03:25 (nineteen years ago)

Dr. Layton is not available for assistance to students at this time.

i like how it sounds like he may be available at some point in the future.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 16 January 2006 04:52 (nineteen years ago)

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