First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life Of Philip Larkin

By Richard Bradford

Book Overview

When Anthony Thwaite's edition of Philip Larkin's Letters was published in 1992 and Motion's biography came out a year later, Larkin's enemies seized on the new disclosures with a frenzy hardly witnessed since the McCarthy era. What had hitherto been regarded only as potential inclinations hinted at in his poems - misogyny and zenophobia in particular - were now indisputable facts, and since then Larkin's reputation as a poet has been tarnished by his image as a human being. Richard Bradford's new biography reveals that Larkin treated his prejudices and peculiarities with detached circumspection. Sometimes he shared them, self-mockingly, self-destructively, with his closest friends; he divided up his life so that some people knew him well but none completely. It was only in the poems that the parts began to resemble the whole.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0720611474
• ISBN13: 9780720611472
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.7" x 8.8"