Keith Botsford - Biography

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.

Thereafter, Keith Botsford was educated in California, and, after 1941, at Portsmouth Abbey in New England . Keith Botsford was briefly attracted to the monastic life, but then continued his education at Yale University, which he left in 1946 to enlist in the US Army, where he served in counter-intelligence. He finished his formal university education at the University of Iowa (A.B., 1950) and at Yale with a Masters in French Literature (A.M., 1952).

In a long career marked by his varied interests, Botsford then studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music, Japanese at Columbia University, the law at Holborn College in London. He was attracted to music and composed a number of chamber works, a ballet, choral music and part-songs. With John Houseman, he worked in film, theater and television.

Keith Botsford's academic career, often combined with administrative tasks, began at Bard College in 1953, where he met his lifelong friend Saul Bellow. In 1958, after two years in Europe living off translation, Keith Botsford became Asst. to the Rector of the University of Puerto Rico, taught Comparative Literature, founded the Honors Program and directed the University of Puerto Rico's television program.

In 1962, Keith Botsford was invited by his University of Iowa friend, John Hunt, to join the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Keith Botsford worked with the Congress for Cultural Freedom spending three years in Latin America while based in Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City.

In 1965, Keith moved back to England to become Deputy International Secretary of International P.E.N., where he organized the Bled Round Tables, the first to which Soviet writers were invited.

After serving at P.E.N., Keith Botsford was invited to become the Director of the Ford Foundation’s National Translation Center at the University of Texas, Austin (1965–1970), where he also was Professor of English.

In 1971, Keith Botsford returned to England where he began a twenty-year career as a sports journalist with The Sunday Times. He also became a Feature Writer and columnist on Gastronomy for The Independent, which he joined in its first week. In addition, Keith Botsford was also a features writer and U.S. correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

By the late 1970s, Keith Botsford had combined his journalism with a post as Professor of Journalism and Lecturer in History at Boston University and a position as Asst. to the President John Silber.

Keith Botsford retired as Professor Emeritus, Boston University in 2006. He now lives in Costa Rica in a RIBA Award-winning house on the Caribbean coast designed by his architect son, Gianni Botsford.

Botsford has eight living children and sixteen grandchildren.