Born in Glasgow in on 27th April 1920, Edwin Morgan celebrated his 80th birthday in 2000. He was brought up in a comfortable middle class family with his father working as a clerk to a firm of ship breakers. From an early age Morgan was fascinated and passionate about words. He remembers that his teachers used to complain about the amount of work he would give them to mark. His early education was at Rutherglen Academy, then Glasgow High School. He has been a resident of Glasgow for the duration of his life with a six year exception for his service in the Middle East with the Royal Army Medical Corps. On his return he completed his Master's degree at Glasgow University before teaching there, becoming Professor of English in 1975. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1980. He has since worked as a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University (1987-1990) and also at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (1991-1995). A former pupil of Morgan's and a notable poet himself, Robert Crawford recalls that Morgan was "an extremely lively teacher ... incredibly focused on what his students were doing".