The Improved Binoculars

'The Improved Binoculars, published in 1956 by Jonathan Williams's Jargon Press, was the first of Layton's collections to be widely published in North America. Ryerson Press, the book's Canadian distributor, refused to distribute the book (or even release it to the author) because of its "controversial" content. It is telling that Layton, whom we now regard as the author of some of the finest poems in Canadian history, found a warmer reception at first in the United States than he did in his own country. Layton's early backers included Robert Creeley and William Carlos Williams, who provided a warm (but condescending — he refers to Layton, a Montrealer, as a "backwoodsman") forward for The Improved Binoculars.'

Irving Layton (Israel Lazarovitch) was born March 12, 1912 in Tirgu Neamt, Romania. Layton came to Montreal with his family before he was one. He attained a BSc in agriculture at Macdonald College in 1939. Following a stint in the Canadian Army, he did graduate work in political science at McGill. A poet, short-story writer, and essayist, Layton is perhaps the most well-known of the Montreal poets, a group of young poets who engaged in a battle against romanticism in poetry in the 1940's. Layton has published many poetry collections, including A Red Carpet for the Sun (1959) which won the Governor General's Award. Layton was poet-in-residence at various Canadian universities and a professor of English at York University 1969-78. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1981.

Irving Layton died in 2006.