Mottram, Eric Noel William

(1924-1995)

   Born in London, he served in the Royal Navy from 1943 to 1947 and graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1950. For the next ten years he taught at schools in Europe and the Far East and in 1960 was appointed lecturer in English and American literature at King's College, London University. In 1963 he co-founded the Institute of United States Studies, which merged with the Institute of Latin American Studies and is now the Institute for the Study of the Americas. He was appointed professor of English and American literature in 1982. His contacts in America with, for example, William Burroughs, and his biography, William Burroughs: The Algebra of Need (1971, British edition 1977), helped to introduce the "Beat" writers to British audiences. He retired in 1990 as professor emeritus of English and American literature; he died in London. He published some 35 collections of poetry; the first was Inside the Whale (1970) and the last was Limits of Self-regard (1998). Some of his poems: "Brief Novel (3)," "Elegy 11: Ford," "Meet in the Corpse," "Peace Project (5)," "Smell of Canyon Rain Storm," "Zuni Dancers."

   Sources: Obituary of Eric Mottram (http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/documents/obits/mottram). Eric Mottram Catalogue, Appendix 2: A Checklist of His Published Poems (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/archives/mottram/mopoems. htm). Biography of Eric Mottram (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/archives/mottram/motttxt.htm\#MOT1). King's College London College Archives, Eric Mottram Collection (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/archives/mottram/motttxt.htm\# MOT1). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970. Richard Caddel and Peter Quartermain, eds. Wesleyan University Press, 1999. The New British Poetry, 1968-88. Gillian Allnutt, Fred D'Aguiar and Ken Edwards, eds. Grafton Books, 1989. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).