The Whitsun Weddings

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [1–6], 7–46, [2, blank]. Plum-coloured cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. First-state tan dustwrapper printed in red, green and black (with no Betjeman review to front flap). 1/3910 copies printed at 12s. 6d.

Poetry Book Society Bulletin No. 40, dated February 1964, with author's comments, loosely inserted. Flawless copy.

Poetry Book Society's Spring Choice. Awarded a prize of £250 by the Arts Council upon publication, for "the best book of original English verse by a living poet published from July 1962 to June 1965", followed by the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry on 5 May 1965. Author's third regularly published poetry collection. Gathers together some of Larkin's best-known poems, including "The Whitsun Weddings", "Days", "Mr Bleaney", "MCMXIV", and "An Arundel Tomb".

"One of the best poems of our time", according to the Times Literary Supplement, the title poem was inspired by a 200-mile drowsy train ride Larkin undertook from Hull to London's King's Cross – "all windows down, all cushions hot" – one Whitsun Saturday in the mid-1950s. "Every time you stopped fresh emotion climbed aboard", the poet remembered years later, referring to the newlyweds joining him along the way for their honeymoon in the capital. "I've never forgotten it." [The Whitsun weekend at the time afforded certain tax breaks, and coincided with a bank holiday Monday]. "Larkin, with his (in the best sense) provincial eye, and his unparalleled ear, is the supreme writer of post-war England." –Telegraph

[Bloomfield A7a]