Philip Larkin Collected Poems - Softcover

Philip Larkin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571153860 ISBN 13: 9780571153862

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2001

Synopsis

Since its publication in 1988, Philip Larkin's Collected Poems, edited by Anthony Thwaite, has become essential reading on any poetry bookshelf. As Blake Morrison wrote in the Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry (2013), it was 'the first attempt to bring together his published and unpublished poetry, and remains the most attractive and accessible volume in print'. Differing to the later 2003 Collected Poems which followed the order of Larkin's successive published collections, the poems here are arranged by chronological order of completion. The result is a fascinating and extraordinary insight into the development of this best-loved poet.

'Philip Larkin was uniquely cherished, and not just in England, largely because of his gift for winning the respect of two kinds of readers: those scrupulously concerned about literary standards and those other nonspecialist listeners-in to what is generally available. This means that his Collected Poems is already a classic, with a guaranteed life on the market and in the memory.' Seamus Heaney

'With this magnificent Collected Poems before us, we can recognise that right from the start his approach to writing poetry was that of a virtuoso.' Peter Porter

About this title

About the Authors

Philip Larkin, poet, novelist and librarian, was born in Coventry in 1922. He published four volumes of poetry - The North Ship (1945), The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974) - for which he received innumerable honours including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and the WH Smith Award. He also wrote two novels, Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947), and his journalism is collected in two volumes, All What Jazz: A Record Diary and Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982. He worked as librarian at the University of Hull from 1955 until his death in 1985.

In 2003, he was chosen as Britain's best-loved poet of the previous fifty years by the Poetry Book Society; in 2008, The Times named him Britain's greatest post-war writer; and in 2016, a memorial stone in his name was unveiled in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

As one of Philip Larkin's chosen literary executors, Anthony Thwaite edited the Collected Poems, Selected Letters and Further Requirements. His own Collected Poems, drawing on fifty years work, was published in 2007.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571153860
• ISBN 13: 9780571153862
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Anthony Thwaite