Early Poems and Juvenilia

Description

Larkin's Collected Poems has become essential reading on any bookshelf, covering his four published volumes The North Ship (1945), The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974). But Larkin was a prolific writer in his youth, and wrote over two hundred and fifty poems in the years leading up to his first collection. Drawing on the pamphlets, manuscripts and workbooks from 1938 to 1946, the Early Poems reveals, for the first time, the formative writings and literary origins of this most gifted of poets.

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 Library, and Required Writing: Miscellaneous Prose. He worked as a librarian at the University of Hull from 1955 until his death in 1985. He was the best-loved poet of his generation, and the recipient of innumerable honours, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, and the WHSmith Award.

"'This tenderly observant poet writes clearly, rhythmically, and thoughtfully about what all of us can understand.' John Betjeman"