Larkin, Philip Arthur

(1922-1985)

   Born in Coventry, he graduated in English language and literature from St. John's College, Oxford, in 1943, but poor eyesight barred him for war service. He worked as a librarian all his life, taking charge of the Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull, in 1955. He edited The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse (1973). He published two novels, Jill (1940) and A Girl in Winter (1947); and two collections of critical pieces, All What Jazz: A Record Diary, 1961-1968 (1970)some of his reviews of jazz records for the Daily Telegraph-and Required Writing (1983). With the onset of deafness in the 1970s Larkin gradually ceased writing poetry and jazz criticism. Academic and civil honors were heaped upon him in England and in America. He died in hospital in Hull and people crowded Westminster Abbey for his memorial service. His poetry publications: The North Ship, 1946. The Less Deceived, 1955. The Whitsun Weddings, 1964. High Windows, 1974. Some of his poems: "Absences," "An Arundel Tomb," "Annus Mirabilis," "Aubade," "Church Going," "Last Will and Testament," "Love, We Must Part Now," "Myxomatosis."

   Sources: 100 Poems by 100 Poets: An Anthology. Harold Pinter, Geoffrey Godbert and Anthony Astbury, eds. Grove Press, 1986. Collected Poems of Philip Larkin. Anthony Thwaite, ed. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Norton Antholog y of Poetry. 4th ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stal, eds. W.W. Norton, 1996. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.