Michael Mott

{{Short description|British-born American author (1930–2019)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name =  | image = | alt =  | caption = | birth_name = Michael Charles Alston Mott | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1930|12|08}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2019|10|11|1930|12|08}} | death_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. | other_names = | occupation = Author, professor | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = ''The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton'' (1984) }}

'''Michael Charles Alston Mott''' (8 December 1930 – 11 October 2019)<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?n=michael-mott&pid=194185257| title = Michael Mott Obituary (1930 - 2019) - Atlanta, VA - Atlanta Journal-Constitution| website = Legacy.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Mott|first=Amanda|title=''Michael Mott Obituary''|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/31/michael-mott-obituary |newspaper=The Guardian|date=31 October 2019|access-date=October 31, 2019|language=en}} </ref> was a British-born American author. He produced eleven poetry collections, four novels and a renowned biography of Thomas Merton.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mott|first=Michael|title=The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton|year=1984|publisher=Harvest Books|isbn=0-15-680681-9}}</ref>

==Life and career== Mott was born in London in December 1930. His father, Eric Mott, was a solicitor and his mother, Margaret "Totts" Berger Mott, was a sculptor from Denver, Colorado.<ref name=Zadrozny>{{cite book|last=Zadrozny|first=Mark|title=Contemporary Authors: Autobiography Series|year=1988|publisher=Gale Research|isbn=0-8103-4456-4|volume=7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/somethingaboutau07mark}}</ref>{{rp|113–115}}

Mott was educated in the United States and in England. After his service in the British Army, he attended Oriel College, Oxford, then art school and a year traveling in Europe and the Middle East. Mott then began his literary career taking a job in 1956 as the editor of trade journal, ''Air Freight''. Between 1956-1966, Mott also worked as the assistant editor of the literary magazine: ''ADAM International Review'', alongside editor Miron Grindea. In 1957, his first collection of poetry, ''The Cost of Living'', was published.<ref name=Zadrozny/>{{rp|125–127}}

On 6 May 1961, Mott married Margaret Watt, a fashion designer, at St. John's Wood Church, London.<ref name=Zadrozny/>{{rp|128}} In 1962, as the couple welcomed twin daughters, Sophie and Amanda, Mott's first novel ''The Notebooks of Susan Berry'' was published.<ref name=Zadrozny/>{{rp|130}} Reviewer Kenneth Allsop writing for the ''Daily Mail'' called the book, "a brilliant first novel."<ref name=Zadrozny/>{{rp|127}} Between 1961 and 1964, Mott worked as a book editor at Thames & Hudson and then as an editor at ''The Geographical Magazine'' (1964–66).

During this time, his first juvenile novel, ''Master Entrick'' was published in 1964 in the UK.<ref name=Zadrozny/>{{rp|129–131}} The book was released in 1966 in the U.S. and a full twenty years later in 1986, a second edition was released as a Dell Yearling edition.<ref name=Mott>{{cite book|last=Mott|first=Michael|title=Master Entrick |year=1969|publisher=Dell Pub. ASIN: B0006QJPFY}}</ref>

In 1966, Mott was invited to teach at Kenyon College and to be the poetry editor of ''The Kenyon Review''. While at Kenyon, Mott continued to publish poetry and fiction, publishing ''Helmet and Wasps'' and ''The Blind Cross''.<ref name=Who>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhXmEYWHDHYC&q=Governor's+Award,+Ga,+Michael+Mott&pg=PA231|title=International Who's Who in Poetry|year=2004|page=231|isbn=9781857431780|last1=Publications|first1=Europa|publisher=Taylor & Francis }}</ref>

During the 1970s Mott and his family lived in Atlanta, Georgia. Mott taught at Emory University as Writer in Residence. Both Michael and Margaret, a costume designer with The Alliance Children's Theater and weaver,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chgweb.com/about_history.html|title=History|publisher=Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild of Atlanta|access-date=11 February 2017}}</ref> were active in Atlanta's budding arts scene. In 1972, he cofounded the Callanwolde Readings Program, which highlights poets and writers, with poet Turner Cassity. In 1974, Mott received the Governors Award in Fine Arts from then Governor Jimmy Carter.<ref name=Who/>

In 1978, Michael Mott was commissioned to write the authorized biography of Thomas Merton. ''The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton'' was published in 1984. The biography remained on the non-fiction The New York Times best-seller list for nine weeks.{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}} The book has had nine printings with 60,000 copies sold to date. Winner of a number of awards, the biography was the runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1985.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Biography-or-Autobiography|title=Pulitzer Prize list|publisher=Pulitzer Prize committee|access-date=11 February 2017}}</ref>

Mott was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979.<ref> {{cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all?index=m&page=26|title=List of Guggenheim Fellows|access-date=11 February 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320112732/http://www.gf.org/fellows/all?index=m&page=26|archive-date=20 March 2014}}</ref> In 1978-1979, and again in 1985-1986 Mott was Writer-in-Residence at the College of William and Mary. He held a Christopher Award and other awards, and had an honorary doctorate from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame.<ref name=Who/> Mott's wife Margaret died of cancer in 1990. In 1992, Mott married Emma Lou Powers, he retired, Professor Emeritus, after eleven years' teaching at Bowling Green State University. In retirement he lived and wrote in Williamsburg, Virginia.{{Citation needed|date=February 2017}} He died in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was being cared for by his daughter Sophie.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/vagazette/name/michael-mott-obituary?id=14826524 | title=Michael Mott Obituary (1930 - 2019) Virginia Gazette | website=Legacy.com }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/31/michael-mott-obituary | title=Michael Mott obituary | website=TheGuardian.com | date=31 October 2019 }}</ref>

==Published works==

=== Nonfiction=== * ''The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1984, 1986; {{ISBN|0395404517}}, {{ISBN|9780395404515}}; Sheldon Press, 1986 (U.K.); {{ISBN|0859694828}}, {{ISBN|9780859694827}}.

=== Fiction=== * ''The Notebooks of Susan Berry'', Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1962; MacMillan Company (U.S.), 1963; Mayflower-Dell Paperbacks (U.K.), 1964. * ''Helmet and Wasps'', Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1965; Houghton Mifflin (U.S.), 1966; Granada Paperbacks (U.K.), 1970. * ''Master Entrick'', Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1965; Penguin Puffin (U.K.), 1969; Delacorte (U.S.), 1966; Dell Yearling (U.S.), Second Edition, 1986. * ''The Blind Cross'', Andre Deutsch (U.K.), 1969; Delacorte (U.S.), 1969.

=== Poetry === * ''The Cost of Living'', Adam Books, London, 1957. * ''The Tales of Idiots & New Exile'', Adam Books, London, 1961. * ''A Book of Pictures'', Outposts Publication, London, 1962. * ''Absence of Unicorns, Presence of Lions'', Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1976. * ''Counting the Grasses'', Anhinga Press, Tallahassee, FL, 1980. * ''Corday'', Beacham Publishing, Washington, D.C., 1986. (Republished in paperback by Black Buzzard Press, Falls Church, VA, 1995.) * ''Piero Di Cosimo: The World of Infinite Possibilities'', Tinhorn Press, Atlanta, 1990. * ''Taino'' (with drawings by Adrian Tri Diaz), Russell McKnight, Logan Elm Press, Columbus, OH 1992. * ''Woman and the Sea'', Selected Poems, Edited by Walton Beacham, and introduced by George Garrett, Anhinga Press, Tallahassee, FL., 1999. * ''The World of Richard Dadd'', Margie/Intuit House Press, Chesterfield, MO, 2005. {{ISBN|0971904014}}, Winner of the 2004 Robert E. Lee & Ruth I. Wilson Poetry Book Award. Introduction by Dara Wier. * ''Pyder Hundred, the Natural History of Harlyn (Poems)'', {{ISBN|978-1906845469}} Palores Publications, Redruth, Cornwall, 2013. * His poetry has also appeared in numerous journals including ''American Scholar, Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, Sewanee Review, Stand Magazine, Tar River Poetry Review, Times Literary Supplement, Verse, Visions International (where he was featured poet in several editions), Image, The Spectator'', etc.<ref>[http://www.pw.org/content/michael_mott_2 Poets & Writers, 2010]</ref>

== Debate == In ''The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton,'' (2018) Hugh Turley and David Martin refute the account of Merton's death in ''The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton'' and other published biographies of Merton pointing to conspiracy theories of his death.<ref>Turley, Hugh; Martin, David (2018). ''The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation'', CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 163.ISBN 978-1548077389. See also their symposium paper, [http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com/ewExternalFiles/What%20We%20Know.pdf "What We Know about Thomas Merton's Death]."</ref>

== Awards == * Governor's Award in the Fine Arts, 1974<ref name=Who/> * Guggenheim Fellowship, 1979-80<ref name=Who/> * Honorary DLitt, St. Mary's College, University of Notre Dame, 1983<ref name=Who/> * Christopher Award, 1984<ref name=Who/> * Ohioana Book Award, 1985<ref name=Who/> * Olscamp Research Award, Bowling Green State University, 1985<ref name=Who/> * Nancy Dasher Book Award, 1985<ref> {{cite web |url=http://www.englishceao.org/wp/about-us/ceao-benefits/nancy-dasher-award/past-recipients-of-the-nancy-dasher-book-award/ |title=List of recipients of the Nancy Dasher Book Award}}</ref> * Robert E. Lee & Ruth I. Wilson Poetry Book Award, 2004

==Resources== The Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University houses The Michael Mott Collection. This includes drafts and notes for Mott’s published and unpublished works, both poetry and prose; journals, diaries and notebooks from 1944–1988; and correspondence with his publishers and with fellow writers from 1965-1989.<ref>Collection Title: Michael Mott Collection, 1944-1989 ; Call number/identifier: Manuscript Series LIX; Repository: [http://www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-collections/evanston-campus/special-collections Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections], Evanston, Illinois.</ref>

==Sources== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}

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