(1922-1985). A
scabrous, resentful, and
anti-sentimental poet. He declined to be
Poet Laureate in
1984 (I think they picked
Ted Hughes then). Larkin attended
St. John's College,
Oxford, where he was friends with
Kingsley Amis.
Major books of poetry include The North Ship (1945) and The Whitsun Weddings (1964). Also, Collected Poems, published in 1989. His monthly record reviews for The Daily Telegraph between 1961 and 1971 were published in a collection entitled All What Jazz: a record diary 1961-1968. He won the Order of the Companion of Honour in June of 1985 - his most prized.
Deeply anti-social and a great lover (and published critic) of
American jazz, Larkin never married and
conducted an uneventful
life as a librarian in the provincial city of Hull, where he
died in 1985.
- quote from the Academy of American Poets website