Keith Botsford

File:SaulBellowAndKeithBotsford.jpg

Saul Bellow (left) with Keith Botsford ca 1992

Keith Botsford (born March 29, 1928, in Brussels, Belgium) is an American/European writer, Professor Emeritus at Boston University and current editor of News from the Republic of Letters.

Biography

Keith Botsford was born in Belgium of an expatriate American father and an Italian mother. His mother (1897–1994) was born Carolina Elena Rangoni-Machiavelli-Publicola-Santacroce, 2nd. daughter of the Marchesa Alda Rangoni. He grew up in a trilingual house, and was educated in English boarding schools. His father returned to the United States early in 1939, and together with his mother and brother, the Botsfords were expelled from Italy on the outbreak of World War II.

Career

Botsford’s work as a novelist is divided into two periods: the first four novels – The Master Race [1955], The Eighth-best-dressed-Man in the World [1957], Benvenuto [1961] and The March-Man [1964] – were either semi-autobiographical or political in nature; his later books (after he returned to fiction in 1989) include three major autobiographical works: O Brother! [2000], The Mothers [2002], and Death and the Maiden [2007] form a coherent trilogy about his brother, his early wives (and mothers) and, in the last, a reprise of The March-Man, his father. During this second period he also published a series of stories and novellas, described as ‘imaginary biographies’, collected in Out of Nowhere [2000]. At the same time he also wrote five non-fiction books on sporting figures and four crime and espionage novels under the pseudonym I.I. Magdalen.

Recognition

Rockefeller Foundation Grant, Moody Foundation Grant, ATA Translation Prize

Newspaper articles

The Sunday Times of London, The Independent, La Stampa

References

• Debrett's People of Today, UK;[1]
• Books [2];
• "Encuentro con Keith Botsford", Insula, num. 262, p. 4;
• "Jedno udane zycie", Tygodnk Powszechni, 22, p. 36ff;
• "Czlowiek Rwnwsansu", Henryk Skwarczynski, Odra, no.7-8, vol XLVIII, 2008
• The American University of Paris - Center for Writers and Translators;[3]

External links

• The Keith Botsford Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University