An Autobiography - Softcover

Muir, Edwin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0701207701 ISBN 13: 9780701207700

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 1987

Synopsis

An Autobiography (Lives & letters)

About this title

Synopsis

Edwin Muir was born in a small island community at the end of the last century. From his sheltered childhood in rural Orkney to the turmoil of industrial Glasgow at the turn of the century, Muir offers a startling vision of Scotland and the creative process during an era of unprecedented change. Witness to the most traumatic years and events of our modern age, Edwin Muir, in his life as in his art, was haunted by the symbolic "fable" which he longed to find beneath the surface "story" of mere events. From his dream notebooks to his travels in Eastern Europe, Muir paints an unforgettable picture of the slow and sometimes painful growth of a poet's sensibility as he comes to terms with his own nature amidst the terror and confusion of the 20th century. A peronal memoir by George Mackay Brown is also included.

About the Author

Edwin Muir was born and raised in the Orkney Islands until his family moved to Glasgow in 1901. He found employment there as a clerk and educated himself during those years, moving to London and marrying Willa Anderson in 1919. Muir gradually established himself as a literary critic and novelist and, with Willa, as a translator – most notably of the works of Kafka. Muir was in his late forties before he started to write the poetry for which he is best known today. His verse is marked by a fascination with time and timeless symbols – haunted no doubt by what he came to see as an idyllic childhood in Orkney.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0701207701
• ISBN 13: 9780701207700
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 287