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from the late 1940s until 1980. From the many thousands of letters in these Edwin Morgan Papers (papers which also include manuscript drafts of poems and translations, his own and others’ artwork pasted into striking scrapbooks, libretti and screenplays, essays, reviews, scripts, lectures and travel diaries), it is possible to trace a poet’s response to, and active shaping of, a manifold life. As editors we have attempted to map both that life and an age. In sequence the letters help recreate Morgan’s intellectual biography, documenting his eager engagement with artistic movements such as constructivism, American and Scottish modernism, sound and concrete poetry, poetry in translation, gay and avant-garde writing – and with the writers and critics involved in these. We begin in the late 1940s, but focus mainly on the last six decades of his life, from 1950 to 2010. He had burned personal letters when leaving to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1940. He survived to return home, and appeared thereafter determined to keep a full record of whatever life presented to him. Th us personal and professional details emerge, with the charm and wit evident to all who met him. Born in 1920, he tended to see his own long career turning quite radically with each decade – as it had suddenly changed from undergraduate studies to war service, and then from the narrow deprivation of 1950s Scotland to his ‘second life’ of cultural and emotional awakening in the 1960s, and again onwards into the darker 1970s, and so on. His letters refl ect these changing contexts. We have followed his preference for a decade’s-eye view in presenting the letters here. Th ere are constants throughout, of course. A central theme is his desire to extend Scottish culture through engagement with literature from other times and places – with avant-garde American writing, with international currents of sound and concrete poetry from São Paulo to Vienna, and with Eastern European poetry in translation, notably from Russia and Hungary. His correspondence reveals an increasing involvement with poetic theatre in the 1980s and 1990s, and other ensemble work in jazz and orchestral music. His love of science and cinema was life-long. Amidst commissions and deadlines, his customary correspondence with artists, fi lm-makers, composers, editors, 2 the midnight letterbox
page 11
academics and readers young and old seldom slackened. Into the midnight letterbox near his fl at were posted late communications for early morning collection. Since he had a gift for warm and humorous contact at a distance, domestic details constantly illumine a working poet’s life. Letters had the signal advantage of allowing him to retain the privacy essential for his poetic work while sharing enough of his alert creative self to make recipients feel that he wrote only for them.Th at self sometimes signed letters with six swift calligraphic strokes that resolved themselves into his initials, EM. Th ere are so many fi ne letters in the Papers that we did not need to prospect further into other literary archives in, for example, the National Library of Scotland. Th e present work is chosen from a much larger body of correspondence posted from Glasgow to – almost anywhere. It has been shaped fi nally by our and the poet’s publishers, Carcanet Press, as the realism of price and production come into play. So these Letters are a selection of a selection of a selection. In order to present the maximum possible number, we did not attempt to produce facsimiles but instead saved space in the layout of addresses and salutations. Where only a date is given, the implication is that the letter was written from the same address as the last previously noted in full. Individual glosses were preferred to footnotes for similar reasons of economy. Asterisked names in these glosses mean that these individuals were also correspondents, with letters included elsewhere and page numbers noted in bold in the index. Together with introductions to each decade, we trust that enough detail is given to guide but not overwhelm the reader. Catalogue references refer directly to the Edwin Morgan Papers in the Department of Special Collections. A brief list of further reading is also included. In the three years taken to complete these Letters, we have been helped by many people. Th is book would have been impossible without them. We would like to thank the poet’s literary executors in Th e Edwin Morgan Trust for permission to publish; Professor Christian Kay and Dr Jean Anderson of Glasgow University for facilitating an early pilot project; and the Glasgow University Chancellor’s Fund for supporting the costs of replicating the chosen letters.Th is formidable task was carried out with cheerfulness and accuracy by Dr Linden Bicket. Staff Introduction 3

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from the late 1940s until 1980. From the many thousands of letters in these Edwin Morgan Papers (papers which also include manuscript drafts of poems and translations, his own and others’ artwork pasted into striking scrapbooks, libretti and screenplays, essays, reviews, scripts, lectures and travel diaries), it is possible to trace a poet’s response to, and active shaping of, a manifold life.

As editors we have attempted to map both that life and an age. In sequence the letters help recreate Morgan’s intellectual biography, documenting his eager engagement with artistic movements such as constructivism, American and Scottish modernism, sound and concrete poetry, poetry in translation, gay and avant-garde writing – and with the writers and critics involved in these. We begin in the late 1940s, but focus mainly on the last six decades of his life, from 1950 to 2010. He had burned personal letters when leaving to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1940. He survived to return home, and appeared thereafter determined to keep a full record of whatever life presented to him. Th us personal and professional details emerge, with the charm and wit evident to all who met him.

Born in 1920, he tended to see his own long career turning quite radically with each decade – as it had suddenly changed from undergraduate studies to war service, and then from the narrow deprivation of 1950s Scotland to his ‘second life’ of cultural and emotional awakening in the 1960s, and again onwards into the darker 1970s, and so on. His letters refl ect these changing contexts. We have followed his preference for a decade’s-eye view in presenting the letters here.

Th ere are constants throughout, of course. A central theme is his desire to extend Scottish culture through engagement with literature from other times and places – with avant-garde American writing, with international currents of sound and concrete poetry from São Paulo to Vienna, and with Eastern European poetry in translation, notably from Russia and Hungary. His correspondence reveals an increasing involvement with poetic theatre in the 1980s and 1990s, and other ensemble work in jazz and orchestral music. His love of science and cinema was life-long.

Amidst commissions and deadlines, his customary correspondence with artists, fi lm-makers, composers, editors,

2 the midnight letterbox

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