Letters from English poet, biographer and critic Andrew Motion, most of which relate to his first poetry collection The pleasure steamers (Carcanet, 1978). Includes references to: the initial submission of the manuscript in January 1977 following its rejection by Oxford University Press; Schmidt's acceptance; subsequent revisions, including the omission of the poem 'The Water's Edge'; submission of the complete revised manuscript in September 1977; choice of title; the inclusion of the title poem in PN Review; Motion's hopes that it might be considered as the Poetry Book Society choice; his advance on the book; and the possibility of American publication. /15 is Motion's suggested blurb for the book.
Other topics include: a slight revision in a poem ['Essex'] contributed to Poetry Nation IV; poems submitted in 1976 for possible inclusion either in a Poetry Nation anthology or in Schmidt's Ten English poets anthology; his completion of his thesis at Oxford, and success in obtaining a lectureship at Hull University in 1977.
/2 includes a bundle of typescript poems by Motion (each with a note of where they were first published), as follows: 'Letter to an Exile'; 'The Colour Works'; 'The Avenue'; 'Essex'; 'In the Attic'; 'Mother and Child'; 'South of the Border'; 'Anywhere but Here'; 'Night Thoughts'; and 'No News from the Old Country'. /7 includes a printed pamphlet version of the poem 'The Pleasure Steamers', published as Sycamore Broadsheet 24 by John Fuller at Sycamore Press, Oxford. /16 is a typescript of the poem 'The Pleasure Steamers' which has been marked up for printing [presumably in PN Review 6].
Dated at: Toot Baldon, Oxfordshire; Oxford; and Hull [Humberside].
Holograph and typescript.