Contact (1952-54) was a mimeographed "little magazine" of poetry, the third journal founded by Toronto poet Raymond
SOUSTER. Its predecessors were
Direction (1943-46) and
Enterprise (1948). It came into existence as an alternative to John
SUTHERLAND's NORTHERN REVIEW, which assumed a traditional direction after Sutherland's conversion to Roman Catholicism; Souster, with his close associates Louis
DUDEK and Irving
LAYTON, felt that a more experimental magazine was needed.
Contact was open to young Canadian writers, but also published American and European poets such as Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov and Jean Cocteau.
Contact's influence was carried on by
CONTACT PRESS (1952-67).
Author
GEORGE WOODCOCK