Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin, (1922-85). British poet and writer. Born in Coventry, he studied English literature at Oxford University, where he met his friend Kingsley Amis. He was librarian of Hull University from 1955 until his death. Larkin’s first collection of poems, The North Ship (1945), shows the influence of Yeats. His later work is quite different, being characterized by an ironic colloquial style and a tone of wry pessimism. The collections The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964), and High Windows (1974) established Larkin as the leading English poet of his generation. He also published two novels and a volume of essays on jazz. His Collected Poems appeared in 1988 and his Selected Letters in 1992.
