Edwin Muir

Edwin Muir (1887-1959) 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.