Edwin Muir
Edwin Muir was a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic, born on May 15, 1887, in Deemess, Orkney Islands. His family, tenant farmers facing financial difficulties, relocated to Glasgow in 1901, where Muir experienced a challenging transition from rural to urban life. Despite limited formal education, he began writing poetry, with his first piece published in 1913. Muir married Willa Anderson in 1919, whose support significantly influenced his literary career, encouraging him to pursue journalism and psychoanalysis. He became well-known for his literary translations, notably introducing Franz Kafka to English readers. Muir also published novels, including "The Marionette," and served as a critic for various notable publications. Throughout his career, he received numerous accolades, including honorary degrees and literary awards, and he held various academic positions, including warden of Newbattle Abbey College and a teaching stint at Harvard University. Edwin Muir passed away on January 3, 1959, leaving a lasting impact on 20th-century literature.
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Subject Terms
Edwin Muir
Poet
- Born: May 15, 1887
- Birthplace: Deerness, Island of Wyre, Orkney, Scotland
- Died: January 3, 1959
- Place of death: Swaffham Prior (near Cambridge), England
Biography
Edwin Muir was born on May 15, 1887, in Deemess, on the Orkney Islands, Scotland, to tenant farmers James and Elizabeth (Cormack) Muir. His family had worked the farms in the Orkney Island area for years, but in 1901, driven by high rents they could no longer afford, the Muirs moved to Glasgow. From 1895 to 1901, Muir attended grammar school near Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, which was the extent of his formal education. After completing his schooling, he worked as an office clerk, a bone factory hand, and in other menial positions, surviving the transition from agricultural living to industrial and commercial surroundings which was difficult for his family. Muir’s mother, father, and two brothers died within five years of their move to Glasgow. These losses young Muir, who would later describe himself as one who was “born before the Industrial Revolution” but who is now “about two hundred years old.”
Muir began writing poetry and had his first piece published in New Age in 1913. In 1919, he joined the staff of New Age in London, working as a journalist and translator until 1921. He met and married teacher and linguist Wilhelmina “Willa” Anderson on June 7, 1919. The couple had one child, Gavin. Muir considered his marriage the most important event of his life, for his wife encouraged him to move to London, to become a journalist, and to enter psychoanalysis to purge his guilt and fear about his past.
Muir traveled to Prague, Czechoslavakia; Dresden, Germany; and Salzburg and Vienna, Austria, where he developed his finesse as a literary critic. He produced numerous reviews for Athenaeum, Scotsman, and Freeman and books of literary criticism, such as Latitudes (1924) and The Structure of the Novel (1928). At the same time, he wrote two full-length poetry collections that moved beyond the Modernist style of the period. He also collaborated with his wife, translating the works of of Lion Feuchtwanger, Gerhart Hauptmann, and Franz Kafka, as well as other authors. Muir is known for being the first person to bring Kafka’s work to the attention of English readers.
In 1927, Muir published his first novel, The Marionette. That year, he and his wife returned to England and settled in Surrey, where they would spent half the year, residing the remainder of the year in Scotland. Two more novels would be published between 1927 and 1932, when Muir returned to his reputable career as critic, translator, and biographer. He was fiction reviewer at The Listener in London from 1933 to 1945 and coeditor of European Quarterly in 1934.
At the same time, Muir accepted a position with the British Council in Edinburgh, and later worked for the British Council Institute in Prague and Rome. He received honorary degrees from Charles University in Prague in 1947, the University of Edinburgh in 1947, and the University of Rennes in 1949. Upon returning to Scotland in 1950, Muir was named the warden of Newbattle Abbey College in Edinburgh, where he remained until 1955, when he traveled to the United States to teach for a year at Harvard University. Among his honors, Muir won the Foyle Prize in 1950, and in 1953 received the Heinemann Award, a fellowship from the Royal Society of Literature, and the Frederick Niven Literary Award. He also was named a commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1953. He died on January 3, 1959.