The Midnight Letterbox

One of the central figures of 20th-century Scottish literature, Edwin Morgan was a prolific letter writer. His correspondence, like his poetry, is wide-ranging, full of generosity and enthusiasm, and above all testament to his lifelong commitment to exploring the possibilities of poetry. This selection of his letters, spanning Morgan’s full career as a teacher and writer, enables readers to track the development of his ideas, his friendships, and his creative collaborations. At the same time it provides a superbly engaging portrait of a man with a boundless interest in the fast-changing world around him.

Edwin Morgan was a professor of English at Glasgow University and retired in 1980. He has since been a visiting professor at Strathclyde University and at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth. He was Scotland’s first national poet and one of the best-loved and most significant poets of the 20th century. He is the author of many books, including A Book of Lives, Edwin Morgan: Collected Poems, and Virtual and Other Realities, and is a coauthor of Three Scottish Poets. James McGonigal is a former professor of English in education in the University of Glasgow. His Edwin Morgan biography was the Saltire Scottish Research Book of the Year. John Coyle is senior lecturer in English literature at the University of Glasgow. He edited Ford Madox Ford’s It Was the Nightingale and Provence.