Edwin Morgan OBE
Edwin Morgan (1920–2010) was a pioneering Scottish poet, and Scotland’s first modern official Makar (National Poet for Scotland), renowned for his inventiveness, intellectual curiosity, and deep commitment to Glasgow.
Born in Glasgow and raised in Rutherglen, Morgan studied at the University of Glasgow in 1937. Morgan’s studies were interrupted in 1940 by the Second World War, during which he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps after registering as a conscientious objector. After serving with the RAMC in Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine, Morgan was demobbed in 1946. He returned to Glasgow and graduated with first-class honours in English in 1946. Across Morgan’s education, he studied French and Russian, and self-educated in Italian and German. These linguistic skills played a central role in Morgan’s literary style, development and career.
Morgan began publishing poetry in the 1930s, under the name ‘Kaa’ in the High School of Glasgow Magazine. His first collection, The Vision of Cathkin Braes, was published in 1952, the same year his celebrated translation of Beowulf appeared. Over the next five decades, he built a remarkable dual career as both poet and translator, working from languages including Russian, Hungarian, Italian, French, Latin, and Old English. His 1968 collection A Second Life established him as a major literary figure, marking both a personal and artistic turning point. In 1963, Morgan met his long-term partner, John Scott. A Second Life, amongst subjects of urban life, also subtly explored love and Morgan’s identity as a gay man. Poems such as "Strawberries" and "The Unspoken" featured non-gendered objects of affection.
Influenced by science, technology, cinema, and music, Morgan wrote in an extraordinary range of forms—from sonnets to concrete poetry—demonstrating great formal innovation and linguistic playfulness. Widely regarded as the most influential Scottish poet of his generation, his work is celebrated for its emotional depth, humour, and humane, international outlook.
Morgan was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy and Professor of Literature in 1997.
