After falling in love with and marrying a man two lifetimes older than her, Irving Layton’s last wife shares the story of her life with the acclaimed poet.
While a student at Dalhousie University, Anna Pottier attended a poetry reading featuring Irving Layton. Walking out of the auditorium that night, she knew two things: she wanted more than ever to be a writer, and she wanted to be with Layton.
At the age of twenty-three she became Layton’s fifth and final wife; she was forty-eight years his junior. She shared the entirety of his world and was intimately involved in the writing and publication of such books as The Gucci Bag, Fortunate Exile, and Waiting for the Messiah. She accompanied Layton on his last major overseas reading tour, broke bread with Pierre Trudeau and Leonard Cohen, met other luminaries, and watched Layton write his very last poem.
But slowly, Layton was changing. In 1992, a doctor put names to these changes: Parkinson’s disease and early-stage Alzheimer’s. Life carried on, but once-easy things grew more difficult, and then the day came in 1995, after nearly fourteen years, when Pottier had nothing left to give.
Good as Gone is a startling, at times searing, account of one of the most unusual love stories of the twentieth century.
While a student at Dalhousie University, Anna Pottier attended a poetry reading featuring Irving Layton. Walking out of the auditorium that night, she knew two things: she wanted more than ever to be a writer, and she wanted to be with Layton.
At the age of twenty-three she became Layton’s fifth and final wife; she was forty-eight years his junior. She shared the entirety of his world and was intimately involved in the writing and publication of such books as The Gucci Bag, Fortunate Exile, and Waiting for the Messiah. She accompanied Layton on his last major overseas reading tour, broke bread with Pierre Trudeau and Leonard Cohen, met other luminaries, and watched Layton write his very last poem.
But slowly, Layton was changing. In 1992, a doctor put names to these changes: Parkinson’s disease and early-stage Alzheimer’s. Life carried on, but once-easy things grew more difficult, and then the day came in 1995, after nearly fourteen years, when Pottier had nothing left to give.
Good as Gone is a startling, at times searing, account of one of the most unusual love stories of the twentieth century.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-325) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- C811/.54
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn---
- ISBN
- 9781459728561 9781459728554
- LCCN
- PR9199.3.L35
- LCCN Item number
- Z73 2015eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (332 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00930228 (OCoLC)911205284 (CaOOCEL)448142
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Title proper/short title
- My life with Irving Layton
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Good as Gone 1
- Copyright 5
- Contents 8
- Preface 10
- A Note on the Quoted Material 12
- Leave-Taking 14
- Part One 20
- 1 22
- 2 30
- 3 36
- 4 44
- 5 50
- 6 58
- 7 64
- Part Two 70
- 8 72
- 9 79
- 10 90
- 11 98
- 12 104
- 13 110
- 14 116
- 15 125
- 16 132
- 17 143
- Part Three 146
- 18 148
- 19 156
- 20 166
- 21 173
- 22 183
- 23 191
- 24 198
- 25 206
- 26 214
- 27 220
- 28 238
- Part Four 244
- 29 246
- 30 253
- 31 260
- 32 274
- 33 284
- 34 294
- 35 296
- 36 303
- Epilogue 305
- Acknowledgements 309
- Appendix 1 311
- Appendix 2 315
- Notes 320
- Index 327
