The 87 poems included in the first (1956) edition of The Improved Binoculars were selected from the eight volumes the poet published in the first ten years of his career. The publication of the book -- simultaneously by The Ryerson Press (Canada), Migrant Books (England), and Jonathan Williams ( US ) -- did much to establish Layton as a major talent on the international poetry scene and prompted Robert Creeley to note: ‘Irving Layton may well be for the historian of Literature ... the First Great Canadian Poet.’
What a pleasure to rediscover ‘The Bull Calf’, ‘The Cold Green Element’, ‘The Birth of Tragedy’ and ‘To the Girls of my Graduating Class’ and discover these poems are as vital as the day they were written.