Larkin at Sixty. by LARKIN, Philip - THWAITE, Anthony (ed.) - 1982

London: Faber and Faber,, 1982. Presented to his friend, who appointed him librarian at Hull University First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "For Ray and Kitty, who will know better than to believe it - Philip". Raymond Laurence Brett (1917-1996) was Professor of English at the University of Hull from 1952 to 1982, and he chaired the committee that appointed Larkin as University Librarian there in 1955. Following Larkin's death in 1985, Brett remembered how the two men worked together "almost daily" and quickly became friends. "At first I was impressed with the time he spent in his office, arriving early and leaving late. It was only later that I realised that his office was also his study where he spent hours on his private writing as well as the work of the library. Then he would return home and on a good many evenings start writing again... Poetry was not only the most important part of his writing, but an important part of his life for which he was ready to sacrifice almost everything else". Larkin at Sixty was edited by Anthony Thwaite as a tribute to the poet on his sixtieth birthday; contributors include Kingsley Amis, Alan Bennett, and John Betjamin. Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine lettered in red. With dust jacket. Light creases to unclipped jacket: a fine copy in near-fine jacket. R. L. Brett, "Philip Larkin: A Psycho-Literary Sketch", About Larkin, no. 7, 1999.