Poet, novelist, and biographer Michael Mott, a London native who worked as an editor and literary critic before emigrating to the U.S., died October 11. He was 88. Mott was poetry editor of The Kenyon Review, taught at Emory University, retired from Bowling Green State University, and was twice Writer-in-Residence at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Mott was the author of 11 poetry collections, including Woman and the Sea and The World of Richard Dadd; four novels, including The Notebooks of Susan Berry and Helmet and Wasps; and The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, which was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1985.
Before moving to the U.S. in 1966, Mott worked as a book editor at Thames & Hudson (1961-1964) and then as an editor at The Geographical Magazine (1964–66). Between 1956 and 1966, he also worked as the assistant editor of the literary magazine ADAM International Review. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979.
Until the time of his death, Mott "maintained a lifelong practice of letter writing corresponding with family, friends, and deep thinkers--most recently former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, artist Katherine Mitchell, poet Tony Roberts, and religion and humanities scholar John Alden Williams--with whom he shared his great passions for literature, philosophy, art, and spirituality." Northwestern University houses his correspondence as part of the Michael Mott Collection in The Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections.