LARKIN, Philip. The Whitsun Weddings. London: Faber and Faber. 1964
8vo. Original burgundy cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Berthold Wolpe; pp. 46, [2]; a few light spots front endpapers, wrapper with a little wear to upper edges, short tear to upper edge of rear spine fold and associated creasing, binding square and firm, cloth and gilt sharp and fresh, not price-clipped (12s 6d net to the front flap); a near fine copy in a very good wrapper; previous owner's contemporary name and date neatly in ink to upper corner of front pastedown (under jacket flap), loosely laid in postcard of the Arundel Tomb in Chichester Cathedral, the subject of the final poem in the book.
First edition, first printing of Larkin’s great third collection, in a nice example of the iconic Berthold Wolpe jacket.
Arriving a nearly a decade after The Less Deceived (1955), the poems of The Whitsun Weddings are mostly the fruits of Larkin’s first decade in Hull. It is one of the of the great works of post-war British poetry, and the first of Larkin's poetry volumes to be published by Faber and Faber (A Girl in Winter, his second novel, was issued by the firm in 1947). Berthold Wolpe's great jacket has also attained something like classic status.
A year after publication, Larkin was awarded an Arts Council prize for "the best book of original English verse by a living poet published from July 1962 to June 1965", as well the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Published on 28 February 1964, 3910 copies of the first impression were issued, selling out within two months.
Bloomfield A7.
SKU: 2125747