LARKIN, Philip. The Whitsun Weddings. London: Faber and Faber, 1964.
8vo. Original maroon publisher's cloth, lettered in gilt to spine; dust-jacket printed in black, green and red; pp. [vi], 7-46, [ii]; cloth a little worn to extremities, previous pencil name now erased from ffep; else a very good copy in jacket which is slightly browned and chipped to spine ends and folds; also very good.
First edition of this famous collection of poems, which includes Days, Mr Bleaney, and An Arundel Tomb. The title poem is one of three that Larkin wrote about train journeys, and was one of his longest, comprised of eight stanzas. It describes a stopping-train journey southwards from Paragon station in Kingston upon Hull, where he was a librarian at the university, on a hot Whit Saturday afternoon. It has been claimed that the poem was based on an actual train journey which the poet made in 1955 on Whitsun Saturday - a day which was popular for weddings at that time.
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