The Mottram Effect



King's College in London is where I first read Charles Olson, Ed Dorn, Robert Creeley, da levy, Jeff Nuttall, Tom Pickard, and a host of other New American and British Revival Poets.  The reason for this has everything to do with the fact that Eric Mottram built the American Studies program at King's from the ground up.  By the time I got to King's in 1992, Mottram had left (in 1990) and Clive Bush (I think) took his place, but Bush followed the path that Mottram blazed. 

I spent most of my time in London in various libraries including the University of London Library which served as the model for the Ministry of Information in Orwell's 1984.  Mottram's archives eventually landed at King's and time and time again I come across this material on the Internet when I am searching for information on little mags and mimeos.  It is a remarkable archive and a testament to Mottram's pioneering scholarship.  Bill Griffiths, another presence at King's, complied a bibliography of Mottram's work.

Here is a link to the index of the archive:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/archives/collect/1mo70-0.html

JB

0 comments:

Post a Comment