Edwin Morgan
About Edwin Morgan
Edwin Morgan (1920–2010) spent his whole life in Glasgow, apart from four years’ military service in the Middle East. Through his writing, however, he explored different eras, cultures, characters and forms, including translations from over a dozen languages. He combined experimental sound and visual poetry with a focus on Glaswegian voices and places, delighting in the city’s gallus irreverence. He explored space and time through inventive science fiction poetry. His internationally recognised poetry, including tender gay love poems sometimes half concealed, offered new perspectives to a largely traditional Scottish public. Poetic drama, from medieval French and Dutch folk plays in the 1980s to the more ambitious Cyrano (1992) and Phaedra (2000), seemed a natural development. His millennial A.D. trilogy about Jesus challenged pious interpretations of a radical message. Terminally ill with cancer, Morgan continued to produce powerful, prize-winning poetry in Cathures (2002) and A Book of Lives (2007), becoming Scotland’s National Poet or Makar in 2004.
Biography by Professor James McGonigal