Philip Larkin Books

This entirely new edition brings together all of Philip Larkin's poems. In addition to those in Collected Poems (1988), and in the Early Poems and Juvenilia (2005), some unpublished pieces from Larkin's typescripts and workbooks are included, as well as verse (by turns scurrilous, satirical, affectionate, and sentimental) tucked away in his letters. The manuscript and printed sources have been scrutinized afresh; more detailed accounts than hitherto available of the sources of the text and of dates of composition are provided; and previous accounts of composition dates have been corrected. Variant wordings from Larkin's typescripts and the early printings are recorded.For the first time, the poems are given a comprehensive commentary. This draws critically upon, and substantially extends, the accumulated scholarship on Larkin, and covers closely relevant historical contexts, persons and places, allusions and echoes, and linguistic usage. Due prominence is given to the poet's comments on his poems, which often outline the circumstances that gave rise to a poem, or state what he was trying to achieve. Larkin played down his literariness, but his poetry enrichingly alludes to and echoes the writings of many others; Archie Burnett's commentary establishes him as a more complex and more literary poet than many readers have suspected.

Spanning forty-five years in the poet's life and encompassing more than seven hundred letters, this collection of Larkin's writings includes his correspondence with Kingsley Amis, Barbara Pym, Robert Conquest, his editors, and many others.

Philip Larkin's Required Writing, a selection from his miscellaneous prose from 1953-82, was highly praised and enjoyed when it appeared in 1983. This second edition of Further Requirements includes two more essays by Larkin: 'Operation Manuscript' and his Introduction to Earth Memories by Llewelyn Powys.

Philip Larkin met Monica Jones at University College Leicester in autumn 1946, when they were both twenty-four; he was the newly-appointed assistant librarian and she was an English lecturer. This title consists of nearly two thousand letters, which chronicle various aspects of Larkin's life and the convolutions of their relationship.

Annotation This new edition of Larkin's poems for the first time presents his four published books, The North Ship, The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows in their original sequence.

Larkin's final collection of poems shows, as does all his best work, his ability to adapt contemporary speech rhythms and everyday vocabulary to subtle metrical patterns and poetic forms. Many of the poems in the collection, which includes some of his best-known pieces ('The Old Fools', 'This Be the Verse', 'The Explosion', and the title poem) show the preoccupation with death and transience that is so typical of the poet.

A work that features: reviews and critical assessments of writers and writing; pieces on jazz, mostly uncollected; some interviews given on various occasions.

With detailed analysis of the text, discussions on themes, historical backgrounds and author biographies, York Notes offers students the best insight into the world of English Literature.

Thwaite has based the whole edition on the carefully preserved and dated notebooks and typescripts left by Larkin.