The selected letters of Dorothy Rath and Irving Layton, read by Ann Elizabeth Carson and actor John Rammell. Contact Tina Conlon at westdonam@gmail.com.
Official press release below:
Thursday May 12, 7.00 -9.00 p.m., “Between the Lines”, at ARTA GALLERY, in Toronto’s Distillery District. Poet Ann Elizabeth Carson and actor John Rammell will bring literary history to life reading selected letters from An Unlikely Affair, Dorothy Rath’s and Irving Layton’s 30 year correspondence.
Audience members may enter the ARTA gallery from the Distillery South parking area or from Distillery Lane on the north side. Admission is free. A $5 contribution to the sponsor, Old Town ARTbeat, will be gratefully accepted.
In addition to the Rath/Irving letters actress and journalist Tara Aghdashloo, will read from This is not a pomegranate, her first collection of poetry. Tara recently played the the Marchesa to a capacity audience in a performance of the Marchesa Luisa Casati Massive Party at the AGO.
Background: On March 23, 1963, after hearing Irving Layton read in London, Ontario, Dorothy Rath wrote him a fan letter enclosing a love poem that sought his response by saying, “please return the poem.” He did, beginning a sometimes tumultuous 30 year correspondence that so intrigued Moasiac Press they published selected letters in An Unlikely Affair in 1980. The correspondence continued, weaving personal revelations with casual references to the literary names of the day, and to the social and political changes taking place in Canada and internationally. In her introduction Adrienne Clarkson says, “It is a relationship, so rare nowadays, when words on a page matter more than events, in which expression is paramount over action.”
Dorothy Rath: established poet, Layton’s devoted admirer and persistent letter writer, kept copies of her hand-written correspondence with Layton. Her letters drew out the deeply emotional and conflicted personality behind the man. As Layton wrote in a letter to her, he was a man with “a surplus of feeling I can find relief from only in poetry.” In addition to An Unlikely Affair, Dorothy has published two books of poetry, All My World Away and The Slender Thread. She is 88 years old and lives in Barrie, Ontario.
Irving Layton: Wikipedia: “Layton’s work provided the bolt of lightning that was needed to split open the thin skin of conservatism and complacency in the poetry scene of the preceding century, allowing modern poetry to expose previously unseen richness and depth.” Leonard Cohen considered him a mentor and honoured him at Layton’s 2006 funeral service , saying, “I taught him how to dress, and he taught me how to live forever.”
Due to ill health Dorothy Rath will not be present at the reading. However members of her family will attend and the reading will be tape recorded.
Old Town ARTbeat presents artists from our community. Beginning in July 2010, this special event will be the 10th in a series of readings of original poetry and theatre, chamber music, lectures and displays of art presented by the organization. The Thursday, May 12 event is co-sponsored by The ARTA Gallery, one of the original fine art galleries to open with the Distillery District in 2001.