Philip Larkin Biography and List of Works

English poet, novelist, and critic, a leading figure of 'The Movement,' term coined to describe a group of British poets that coalesced during the 1950s, about the same time as the rise of the 'Angry Young Men'. 'The Movement' poets addressed everyday British life in a plain, straightforward language and often in traditional forms. It attracted first attention with the publication of the anthology New Lines, edited by Robert Conquest. Among its authors were Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis, Donald Davie and Thom Gunn. Larkin's best-known books were THE LESS DECEIVED (1955), THE WHITSUN WEDDINGS (1964) and HIGH WINDOWS (1974)

'Deprivation is to me what daffodils are to Wordsworth.'

Philip Larkin was born in Coventry. He was educated at King Henry VIII School where he wrote for the school magazine. At the age of 18 he entered St. John's College Oxford, where he studied English and met Kingsley Amis. After graduating he became a librarian, first in the library of an urban district council in Shropshire, later in university libraries in Leicester and Belfast. From 1955 until his death he was the librarian of the Brynmawr Jones library at the University of Hull, which he built up from a staff of eleven to one of over 100.

"Until I began to meet grown-ups on more or less equal terms I fancied myself a kind of Ishmael. The realization that it was not people I disliked but children was for me one of those celebrated moments of revelation, comparable to reading Heackel or Ingersoll in the last century. The knowledge that I should never (except by deliberate act of folly) get mixed with them again more than compensated for having to start earning a living."
(from Required Writing, 1983)

As a poet Larkin made his debut with the collection THE NORTH SHIP in 1945, written using short lines and carefully worked-out rhyme schemes. It was published at his own expense. The sad songs showed the influence of Yeats. It was followed by two novels, JILL (1946) and A GIRL IN WINTER (1947).

Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.
(from Next, Please, 1955)

Among Larkin's major works are THE LESS DECEIVED (1955) and THE WHITSUN WEDDINGS (1964), in which the title-poem describing the poet's journey by train from Hull to London is his best-known works. Larkin used the tones and rhythms of ordinary speech, and focused on the urban landscape of the industrial north. HIGH WINDOWS (1974) includes two substantial poems about ageing, illness and death: 'The Old Fools' and 'The Building'. In these works Larkin explored the mood of post-war England and its reduced expectations. However, his common sense, scepticism and cool approach to drab suburbia and Welfare-State-sponsored lives engendered criticism of lack of emotional risk. The urge to self-limitation appeared to have carried Larkin to the point of not writing much poetry and keeping his deeper feelings out of the poems he did write.

Although he had number of affairs, Larkin feared marriage and family, and never married. He managed to maintain three long relationships - most of his life Larkin spent with Monica Jones whom he met when he was 24. In 1974 he bought a house in Hull, which he shared with his companion Monica Jones. Larkin's mother died in 1977, and after her death he wrote only 11 poems, although he produced a book of essays in 1983.

Shortly after refusing the Laureateship when his friend John Betjeman died, Larkin underwent surgery for cancer of the oesophagus, and died on December 2, 1985. In spite of his wishes to destroy his papers, manuscripts were saved, but his voluminous diaries were burnt. In 1993 Andrew Motion published a controversial biography of the poet, which revealed the Nazi sympathies and misogyny of Larkin's father, the poet's casual racism, and other politically incorrect attitudes.

"All the unhurried day
Your mind lay open like a drawer of knives."

Larkin also wrote jazz reviews for The Daily Telegraph. Most of his articles were collected under the title ALL WHAT JAZZ.(1970)

For further reading: Philip Larkin: A Bibliography by B.C. Bloomfield (1980); Larkin at Sixty ed. by A. Thwaite (1982); Larkin by R. Day (1987); Philip Larkin: The Man and His Work by D. Salwak (1989); Philip Larkin: His Life's Work by J. Rossen (1989); Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by A. Motion (1993); Out of Reach: The Poetry of Philip Larkin by A. Swarbrick (1995); Philip Larkin by Warren Hope (1997); Philip Larkin, ed. by Stephen Regan (1997); Encyclopaedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol. 3); Larkin's Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Poetry by B.J. Leggett (1999)

THE NORTH SHIP, (1945)