COLLECTED POEMS (First edition - first printing)

Philip Larkin (Edited with an Introduction by Anthony Thwaite)

ISBN 10: 0571151965 / ISBN 13: 9780571151967

Published by The Marvell Press / Faber and Faber, London, 1988

About this Item

The true first printing of the first edition - with no mentions of reprints stated on the printer's page. Unusually for a poetry collection, Larkin's "Collected Poems" went into a number of reprints soon after publication in 1988. ***Near fine in olive-green cloth-covered boards. Head and tail of spine uncreased. Corners sharp. Boards clean and unmarked. No bumps or creases. No reading creases to the spine. Top edge of page block slightly foxed. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally also near fine, with no inscriptions or annotations. Pages bright. No creases or tears. ***In a near fine dustwrapper, which retains the original publisher's printed price of £16.95 on the front flap. The dustwrapper is just slightly rubbed and creased at the top edges. No tears. No chips. There is just very slight fading to the spine area due to the light-sensitive colour used for this dustwrapper, which tends to fade from cream to white. (Please see scans) ***xxvii preliminary pages containing: Acknowledgements, Introduction by Anthony Thwaite, Abbreviations, Note on the Manuscripts and Typescripts. 330 pages including Appendix: Order of poems in the individual collections, Notes, Index of titles and Index of first lines at the back of the book. 223 m x 145 m. ***'When Philip Larkin died in December 1985, The Times obituarist described him as "the most widely read and appreciated poet of his generation". In this volume, all his published poetry is brought together: "The North Ship", the pamphlet of "XX poems", "The Less Deceived", "The Whitsun Weddings" and his final book, "High Windows". In addition, many poems are published here for the first time. There is a substantial selection of early poems written from his middle teens to 1945, and several previously uncollected poems of his maturity, among them the few he completed and left unpublished after "High Windows". Anthony Thwaite has based the whole edition on the carefully preserved and dated notebooks and typescripts left by Larkin. An appendix lists in the order Larkin assigned to them the contents of each of the books and pamphlets published in his lifetime, together with the order of contents of the collection "In the Grip of Light", which he attempted to publish in 1947. As the editor observes, "taken together, the poems show the growth of a major poet, testing, filtering, rejecting, modulating, achieving"'. (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper). ***A true first printing of the first edition of the first collected edition of Philip Larkin's poems, in nice collectable condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 9390

Bibliographic Details

• Title: COLLECTED POEMS (First edition - first printing)
• Publisher: The Marvell Press / Faber and Faber, London
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571151965
• ISBN 13: 9780571151967
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Printing: First Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • First Editions

About this title

Synopsis

One of the best-known, best-loved poets of the English-speaking world, Larkin had a relatively small number of poems published during his lifetime. This Collected Poems, which J. D. McClatchy called "a fascinating and indispensable text" in The New York Times Book Review, brings together not only all of Larkin's published verseâ The North Ship (1945), the pamphlet of XX Poems (1953), The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964), and High Windows (1974)â but also a vast selection of his uncollected poetry. A brief Introduction by Anthony Thwaite illuminates both the life and verse of this highly perceptive and deeply acerbic poet, a dour yet witty soul whose brilliant writings so often suggest an ongoing conflict between the traditional and the modern.

About the Author

Philip Larkin was born in Coventry in 1922 and was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, and St John's College, Oxford. As well as his volumes of poems, which include The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows, he wrote two novels, Jill and A Girl in Winter, and two books of collected journalism: All What Jazz: A Record Diary, and Required Writing: Miscellaneous Prose. He worked as a librarian at the University of Hull from 1955 until his death in 1985.