Elliott, William

Epithet: Reverend; MA

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000980.0x000184

Epithet: Captain

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000980.0x000182

William Elliott joined the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854 (leader William Pullen), as clerk in charge in HMS North Star, the store ship for the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854 (leader Sir Edward Belcher). North Star spent two winters at Beechey Island and was the only ship of the five in Belcher's search expedition to return to England in 1854, the other four being abandoned on Belcher's orders when beset in the ice. Elliott was later appointed paymaster in the survey vessel HMS Plumper under George Richards, engaged in a detailed survey of the waters between Vancouver Island and the American mainland, to help determine the location of the international boundary through the San Juan Islands.

From the guide to the William Elliott collection, 1854, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)

Epithet: of the Victualling Office

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000980.0x000183

Epithet: musician

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000429.0x000204

Epithet: Squadron Leader RAF

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001296.0x00010c

William I. Elliott received his D.B. from University of Chicago in 1957. He holds degrees in English literature from Ottawa University and the University of California at Berkeley, and attended the Institute of Far Eastern Languages at Yale.

Through the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, Elliott began teaching at Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan in 1960, and started the Kanto Poetry Center in 1967. From 1968-1983 Elliott was a professor of English at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, after which he returned to Kanto Gakuin University. Elliott founded the journal Poetry Kanto, published annually since 1984. He received grants from the National Endowments for the Humanities and Oregon Arts Foundation to travel to Japan for translation purposes.

Elliott writes essays, articles, poems, and books, and also serves as an editor of various journals and books. Some of his publications include Call Me Legion: Thoughts About Our Response to People and the World (1964), Modern American Literature: An Introduction (1965), Empty Shoes (1968), After the Mallard Sinks: Poems (1977), An Essay on Criticism and the Art of Poetry (1989), A Packet of Christmas Poems (1998), A Book of Shadows (2003), A Plain Squall (2003), A Suite of Angels: Poems (2003), Borrowed Breath: Lyrics and Longpoems, (2004), and An Encore of Angels: Poems (2004). Elliott is known for his translations of contemporary Japanese poetry, particularly Shuntarō Tanikawa. His translations include Festive Wine: Ancient Japanese Poems from the Kinkafu (1969), Elegy and Benediction: Selected Poems, 1947-1989 (1991), 62 Sonnets and Definitions: Poems and Prosepoems (1992), Songs They Sang in Ancient Japan: Isles of the Dragonfly (1995), Last Rays of Light: 100 Tanka (2001), The Singing Heart: An Anthology of Japanese Poems (1900-1960) (2001), and Giving People Poems (2005).

From the guide to the Elliott, William I. Papers, 1940-2008, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)