The Less Deceived

First paperback edition. U.K. re-issue of the U.S. edition. 1973 [i.e. 1974]. 8vo. Pp. 45, [3, blank]. Publisher's mauve pictorial card covers lettered in white to front and violet to spine. Published in March 1974 in an impression of 5,000 copies at 80p. Dedicated to [his life-long companion] Monica Jones.

"A photolithographic reprint of the first American edition, with the misprint in the first line of the poem 'Toads' on p. 32; and all the others." This misprint-strewn U.S. edition was published by St. Martin's Press in 1960. Originally issued by The Marvell Press in October 1955.

Author's first mature collection of verse and second regularly published poetry book, preceded by the Yeatsian The North Ship (1945) and the self-published pamphlet XX Poems (1951). It reprints thirteen of the twenty poems from the latter, copies of which were mailed to literary dignitaries by the author unaware that postal rates had increased overnight, with most would-be recipients demurring when asked to cover the difference. His previous two collections attracted virtually no reviews, with the pattern repeating itself, until the 22 December issue of The Times listed it as one of the year's best books. That initiated a spate of favourable reviews and multiple reprints.

Amongst the sixteen new entries, it prints one of Larkin's major poems – Church Going – a meditation on the role of the church in a secular age, written by a self-described "Anglican agnostic". It had lain unappreciated in the Spectator's literary department for over a year – even losing the typescript – before being published (in a slightly altered form) in the month of the book's publication. The Times Literary Supplement's verdict: "[A] poet of quite exceptional importance."

[Bloomfield A6c]