The journal was significant in the growth of British, Irish, and international poets and has been described as Linden's "crowning gift to literature—the nurturing and developing of poetic talent".

Linden's religious upbringing caused him to struggle with his homosexuality, and he even sought treatment from doctors, but abandoned this after falling out with the medical staff.

[8][9] According to his biographer John Cooney, "Linden sought freedom to explore his capabilities, away from what he felt were the dual Calvinist and Jansenist suffocations of the west of Scotland."

[10] In August 1958, by then in his early 20s, the young Edward, who would be known as Eddie, moved to London to work as a porter at St Pancras railway station.

According to Linden, "the whole idea was to publicise the immorality of the bomb": the group were affiliated to the national CND, and a letter was sent to General de Gaulle to protest the French test explosion.

[1] In 1963, he co-founded the Simon Community, a charity in aid of the homeless, with Anton Wallich-Clifford, a probation officer at Bow Street Magistrates' Court.

[8] Linden took part in an August 1968 protest against Pope Paul VI's ruling over birth control which made headlines in the British press.

[11] In reaction to the sacking of British priests who opposed this stance, there were "heated exchanges" which "started a scuffle" on the steps of Westminster Cathedral as the congregation left a mass service.

The man had earlier "snatched and torn" a poster held by a youth group who were supporting Father Paul Weir, an assistant priest who had been suspended for objecting to the ruling.

Linden's involvement was reported in front page newspaper stories published by The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

[7][18] Amongst others, Aquarius published works by Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Tom Scott and Kathleen Jamie.

Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, James Campbell stated that "the actual editing" was undertaken by figures such as Barker, Heath-Stubbs and Douglas Dunn, another Scottish poet.

A number of editions were similarly themed, including Irish, Scottish, Australian and Canadian issues; others honoured Heath-Stubbs, Roy Fuller, Hugh MacDiarmid and The Poetry of the Forties.

[24] In 1991, the existence of Aquarius was said to be under threat, prompting a question in the House of Commons from Scottish Labour MP Brian Wilson to the Minister for the Arts, Tim Renton.

[26] Profiling Linden for The Guardian in 1993, John Ezard commented, "For several generations of writers he has been part of the cultural furniture".

During the period in which Aquarius was published, Irish broadcaster Frank Delaney said that Linden was "a butler to literature",[20] and journalist Auberon Waugh called it the best poetry magazine in Britain.

[29][30][31] A Festschrift, Eddie's Own Aquarius, edited by Constance Short and Tony Carroll, was published in tribute to Linden himself in 2005.

Marking Linden's 70th birthday, it featured tributes from friends and contributions from writers who had appeared in the magazine, amongst them poets Seamus Heaney, Alan Brownjohn, Roger McGough, Dannie Abse, Brian Patten, Elaine Feinstein, Alasdair Gray, Paul Muldoon, Tom Paulin, illustrator Ralph Steadman, politician Clare Short (a cousin of the book's co-editor Constance), artist Craigie Aitchison, academic Bernard Crick, former CND chair Bruce Kent, writer James Kelman and emeritus Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

[1] Comfortable little suburb north of London With its wooded heath Where queers and heteros nest at night Little girls in mini-skirts Boys with long hair and pockets full of French letters Preparing for a night's fucking As well as publishing poetry in Aquarius, Linden also wrote and gave readings of his own poems, such as "City of Razors", which recalls the sectarian violence of his youth in Glasgow.

[34][35] He was also friends with the novelist (and subsequently Hollywood screenwriter) Alan Sharp, who based the character of Sammy Giffen on Linden in his book The Wind Shifts, published in 1967.

[17] Reviewing the collection, The Guardian said that Linden "can be seen to be a poet who shares with Paul Potts a quality of trusting helplessness before the world, a rare and moving state of awareness.

In a line-up that included performances by Pete Brown, Ivor Cutler, Gavin Ewart, Adrian Henri and Harold Pinter, Linden read his poem "Hampstead by Night".

[17] It co-starred Dallas Campbell as a young man trying to get his poetry published by Linden, and ran from 28 February to 25 March 1995.

Barker's widow, the poet Hilary Davies, described Linden as "loyal and non-judgmental", and, comparing him to a meerkat, said he was "sociable, communicative, ferreting in corners for choice morsels and then delighting in showing it to the community".

[2] In 2018, a different oil painting of Linden by Canavan was displayed at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, which took place at the Mall Galleries in London.

[54] In 2000, Matthew Sweeney's "Incident in Exeter Station", published as The Saturday Poem in The Guardian, was dedicated to Linden.