Larkin Philip Contributor (3 results)

First edition. 11.5 x 11.25 inches. 155 pages. Profusely illustrated in color. Original pictorial boards. "Published to accompany Damien Hirst's exhibition of butterfly paintings at Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles in February 2007, "Superstition" is a visually stunning book that confirms Hirst's reputation as one of the most significant visual thinkers of his generation. Using 'High Windows', the last published volume of poems by Philip Larkin, as a point of reference to focus on the business of death and love, the 'baroque and lavish fractals' of Hirst's paintings have a direct and clear poetry of their own, making Superstition a grand and tender body of work: 'Larkin would probably have seen straight away the point of Hirst's butterflies, these most evanescent of nature's creatures, trapped here in their thousands under glass, their bright day done yet glowing still in death.' "Superstition" includes over 30 exquisite full colour plates of the butterfly paintings, as well as reproductions of details and installation shots, providing a curatorial insight into this magnificent body of paintings. In addition to the wonderfully rich plates "Superstition" reproduces 6 of Philip Larkin's poems, a commentary by Richard Bradford, and an erudite introduction by John Banville: 'Death informs our every aspiration, our every hope, and stands at the end of every turn we take, the iron gate that will open just for us. As someone has said of the novel, having a happy ending depends on where you stop" (the publisher). A near fine copy.

First Edition. (London: The TLS 1981). A newspaper. Special issue devoted to crime and mystery fiction. Includes, inter alia,: reviews by Julian Symons of biographies of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; Philip Larkin on James Bond (a full-page article headed "The Batman from Blades"; ostensibly a full page review of John Gardner's 'Licence to Kill'". Also includes a review of Eric Ambler's 'The Care of Time' by Michael Gilbert; a review of Ruth Rendell's 'Put on by Cunning' by Francis Wyndham and a full page review of John Dickson Carr's 'The Door to Doom' by Kingsley Amis headed "The art of the impossible". There are other reviews by Julian Barnes and Russell Davies plus a symposium on neglected crime classics wherein distinguished crime fiction authors (including Eric Ambler, Ruth Rendell, Nicholas Freeling, John Bingham, Patricia Highsmith, Reginald Hill, Geoffrey Household, John D. Macdonald et al) .are invited to nominate an author or an individual which they feel has been underrated or unjustly neglected. There is a 2-page interview of P D James by Patricia Craig. An issue not to be missed. Paper slightly browned, folded. VG. Not to be missed. Photographs/scans available upon request.

First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth with gilt title to spine, price-clipped dust jacket. London, Fortune Press.  An important collection including ten contributions by Philip Larkin, all of which were included in his debut collection The North Ship published in the same year, alongside poems by Peter Bentley, Paul Haeffner, Gerard Irvine, Francis King and Roy Porter.  Provenance: From the library of Orwell scholar and former UCL deputy librarian Ian Angus, with his neat pencilled ownership to the front free endpaper. Angus was the co-editor of Orwell's Collected Journalism, Essays and Letters published in 1968 and also later contributed to editing the enormous 20-volume edition of Orwell's Complete Works published 1997-8. A very good copy, dust jacket with browning along edges and spine, some wear to edges, tear to front wrapper. Manuscript note in pencil to ffep.