Born and educated in Toronto, Raymond Souster is that city's most loved poet and servant to poetry. He worked at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from 1939 to his retirement in 1985, a career interrupted only from 1941 to 1945, when he served as ground crew in the Royal Canadian Air Force. First published as a poet in the early 1940s, Souster went on to produce over 50 volumes of his own verse and to edit or co-edit a dozen volumes of others' poetry. He founded and edited three poetry journals, Direction (1941-46), Contact (1952-54), and Combustion (1957-60). In Contact, he brought out works of major writers such as Margaret Atwood's The Circle Game, which won the 1966 Governor-General's Award for poetry. Souster was one of six poets who founded the League of Canadian Poets in 1966 and he served as its first President (1967-72). Canada gave him two of its greatest honours, the Governor General's Award for poetry (The Colour of the Times, 1966) and the Order of Canada (1995). On June 17, 1998, the Toronto Harbourfront Reading Series and his friends Al Purdy, Av Isaacs, Bruce Whiteman, Barry Callaghan, Robert Fulford, and Margaret Avison celebrated him. Fellow poets among whom he numbered his friends were Louis Dudek and Irving Layton.
The Government of Canada Order of Canada Web site, speaking for the nation, says this: "One of Canada's most important, widely-read and enduring poets, he has been a vital force for the renewal of poetry since the 1940s. His poems describe life in Toronto, ordinary people and the daily events, feelings and experiences of modern city living. A co-founder of the Canadian League of Poets, he has been a source of encouragement and inspiration to several generations of poets while promoting Canadian literature among students of all ages."
Books of Poems
Souster, Raymond. When We are Young. Montreal: First Statement, 1945. LE S7257w Robarts Library
--. Go To Sleep World. Toronto: Ryerson, 1947. PS8537 .O87 G6 Robarts Library
--. City Hall Street. Toronto: Ryerson, 1951. PR6037 .O8 C5 Victoria University Library
--. Shake Hands with the Hangman: Poems 1940-1952. Toronto: Contact Press, 1953. cap 04364 Fisher Rare Book Library
--. A Dream That is Dying: Poems. Toronto: Contact Press, 1954. E-10 01561 Fisher Rare Book Library
--. Walking Death: Poems. Toronto: Contact Press, 1954. cap 04367 Fisher Rare Book Library
--. For What Time Slays. Toronto: Contact Press, 1955. PR6037 .O8 F6 Victoria University Library
--. The Selected Poems. Ed. Louis Dudek. Toronto: Contact Press, 1956. PS8537 .O87 A6 1956 Robarts Library
--. Crêpe-hanger's Carnival: Selected Poems 1955-58. Toronto: Contact Press, 1958. PR6037 .O8 C7 Victoria University Library
--. Place of Meeting. Gallery Editions, 1962. PS8537 .O87 P5 Robarts Library
--. A Local Pride. Toronto: Contact Press, 1962. PS8537 .O87 L6 1962 Robarts Library
--. The Colour of the Times: Collected Poems. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1964. PS8537 .O87 C6 Robarts Library
--. Ten Elephants on Yonge Street. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1965. PS8537 .O87 T4 Robarts Library
--. As Is. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1967. PS8537 .O9 A8 Trinity College Library
--. Lost And Found: Uncollected Poems. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1968. PS8537 .O87 L67 Robarts Library
--. So Far, So Good: Poems, 1938/1968. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1969. PR6037 .O8 S6 Victoria University Library
--. The Years. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1971. PR 6037 .O8A6 Victoria University Library
--. Selected Poems Of Raymond Souster. Ed. Michael Maklem. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1972. PS8537 .O87 A6 Robarts Library
--. The Colour of the Times. Ten Elephants on Yonge Street. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1973. PS8537 .O87 C6 Robarts Library