Souster, Raymond (1921-2012), was a Canadian poet. He used direct, simple language to make uncomplicated statements. Most of Souster’s poems concern Toronto, where he was born and grew up. He wrote about that city with both irony and sympathy.
Souster won the Governor General’s Award for the collection The Colour of the Times (1964). In 1952, Souster helped found Contact Press, which published the work of modern Canadian poets. He also edited several anthologies of Canadian verse, including New Wave Canada: The New Explosion in Canadian Poetry (1966). Eight volumes of Souster’s Collected Poems cover his verse from 1955 to 1995. His later collections include Take Me Out to the Ballgame (2002). Souster wrote two novels, The Winter of Time (1949), under the pen name Raymond Holmes, and On Target (1973), under the pen name John Holmes. Souster was born on Jan. 15, 1921, and died on Oct. 19, 2012.
