In 1960, Mottram returned to London and took a post as Lecturer in English and American Literature at King's College London. At the time, King's was one of very few British universities to offer American studies, and Mottram was to prove a pioneer in the field. He co-founded the Institute of United States Studies in 1963, the same year in which his tenure as a lecturer at King's was confirmed. In 1973, became Reader in English and American Literature and a special Chair was created for him as professor in 1982. In September 1990 he retired with the title Emeritus Professor of English and American Literature.
In the early 1960s, Mottram travelled to the United States and met a number of writers, including William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg and others. He became friendly with William Burroughs during his time in London. These contacts resulted in three of Mottram's best-known critical books - William Burroughs: the algebra of need, Allen Ginsberg in the Sixties and Paul Bowles: staticity & terror. These studies did much to help introduce the Beat Generation writers to a wider British audience.
Mottram corresponded with the American poet Robert Duncan between 1971 and 1986. The full correspondence was published as The Unruly Garden: Robert Duncan and Eric Mottram, Letters and Essays, edited and with an Introduction by Amy Evans and Shamoon Zamir.
Mottram as poet
Mottram's first book of poetry, Inside the Whale, was published by Bob Cobbing's Writers Forum in 1970. Mottram went on to publish at least another 34 collections, including A Book of Herne: 1975-1981, Elegies and Selected Poems. His work clearly shows the influence of the American avant-garde poets he admired, particularly in his use of techniques such as found poetry, cut-up technique and collage, but it also has a distinctly British quality in the tradition of Basil Bunting. An interview with Mottram appeared in the London-based magazine Angel Exhaust, along with his poetry. An interview and poetry reading, recorded in 1982, appears in .
Mottram as editor
In 1971, Mottram was made editor of the Poetry Society's magazine Poetry Review. Over the next six years, he edited twenty issues that featured most, if not all, of the key poets associated with the British Poetry Revival and carried reviews of books and magazines from the wide range of small presses that had sprung up to publish them. Mottram also included work by a number of American poets, a fact that ultimately led to his removal from the post. During this period, Mottram was twice a guest lecturer at Kent State University, where, along with Black Mountain poet Ed Dorn, he was an early supporter of the musical groupDevo, and its founders Gerald Casale and Bob Lewis, whose poetry Mottram published when he was editor of Poetry Review. He also edited The Rexroth Reader and the section of the 1988 anthology The New British Poetry that was given over to the poets associated with the Revival.
