LETTERS HOME, 1936-1977

First paperback edition, first printing (same size and format as the 2018 hardback). Signed by the editor, James Booth, former Professor of English at the University of Hull. Original illustrated card wrappers the front panel with a Larkin family photograph including a suitably grumpy Philip. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. Upper spine tip a touch pushed. Priced £25 to the rear panel.

Signed by James Booth in black ink to the title page. Following Anthony Thwaite's edited volumes of Larkin's letters ('Selected Letters' and 'Letters to Monica'), Booth's generous selection of the poet's letters to family members, predominantly his mother Eva, opens up this vital area of the poet's life for the first time. As Blake Morrison remarked in his review of the book (The Guardian, 31 October 2018), "Eva dominates this collection – and [...] dominated Larkin's life". The volume also includes letters to his father, Sydney, city treasurer in Coventry and an early admirer of Hitler, who died in 1948.