OXFORD POETRY 1942-1943

First edition, first printing. Original dark green card wraps with a white paper label lettered in black affixed to the upper-left of the front panel. Crown 8vo. Printed on cream-wove paper, upper edges untrimmed, many pages still uncut. Signed by John Heath-Stubbs following his contribution. From the library of James Booth, former Professor of English at the University of Hull, biographer, editor and former colleague of Philip Larkin, with his pencilled name to the title page, and the publisher's perforated 'Complimentary Copy Not For Sale' notice to the margin of the same page. There are two small manuscript corrections to the final poem in the volume by the South African-born poet, David Wright (1920-1994), suggesting that this was his copy. A crisp, clean, near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. The card wraps and label remain clean and sharp with a couple of diagonal creases to the lower portion of the rear panel and some light rubbing to extremities.

Signed by John Heath-Stubbs in blue ink at the foot of p. 32 following his contribution, 'Tchaikowskian Poem'. After taking first-class honours at Queen's College, Oxford in 1942, Heath-Stubbs stayed in Oxford for a BLitt. "[A]fter a preliminary year's work", according to Anthony Curtis in his ODNB article for the poet, "both he and his supervisor, David Nichol Smith, came to the conclusion that in spite of his wide knowledge of literature, scholarship was not his forte. Part of his trouble was emotional: he had by now discovered his homosexuality and fallen desperately in love with Philip Rawson who, while admiring Heath-Stubbs's intellect and offering him firm friendship, was not of the same sexual orientation." Rawson, a poet and painter, also contributes a poem to the anthology. Philip Larkin was taking his final exams at St John's College the summer it was published (he, too, would be awarded first-class honours). It was the first appearance of his work in a published book. In a letter to J. B. Sutton (16 March 1943) he says that he is "trying to gatecrash another anthology, or have I told you? Nothing exciting, 'Oxford Poetry' 1942-3. I crave to get all this fucking exam work over and to settle down to some solid prose." True to his word, he spent the months following graduation at the family home writing his Oxford novel, 'Jill' (dedicated to Sutton). Larkin contributes three poems to the anthology, 'A Stone Church Damaged by a Bomb', 'Mythological Introduction', and 'Poem', the last of which would be included in his 1945 volume, 'The North Ship', the other two having to wait until the 1988 'Collected Poems' to see the light again. Loosely laid in to this copy is a photocopied page reproducing Cyril Connolly's short review in 'The Observer', and unsigned reviews from the 'Whitby Gazette' and the TLS, the latter praising the "brave effort to keep the series of Oxford Poetry going in war-time" (it was an annual publication), noting that "although this number contains no outstanding contributors, the quality of the verse as a whole is sensitive and exploratory". It is to be hoped that the anonymous reviewer lived to witness the career of many of the volume's contributors. Published on 12 June 1943 in an edition of 500 copies. (Bloomfield B1).