Books

First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Happy Days to Eddie Dawes, from his colleague Philip Larkin", with the recipient's bookplate on the front pastedown. The book is offered together with a typed letter signed, thanking Dawes for his congratulations after being appointed a CBE, and autograph postcard signed, declining an invitation. Edwin Dawes (1925-2023) was Professor of Biochemistry at Hull University and met Larkin there in the early 1960s, when the poet was the chief university librarian. The two soon became friends, and Larkin later nominated Dawes to chair the library committee. As well as a distinguished scientist, Dawes was a historian of magic and a practicing magician. The American illusionist David Copperfield described him as "one of the great, if not the greatest, magic historians of my lifetime" (quoted in The Times, 17 March 2023). Larkin and Dawes occasionally attended Hull Magicians' Circle dinners together. Larkin was typically scathing about one in a letter to Kingsley Amis: "Dull non-day... a pissy evening attending the annual dinner of the Hull Magic Circle nay, stare not so. Its president is my chairman" (31 March 1979). He was more positive about a 1982 dinner party hosted by Dawes and his fellow magician Dale Salwak. Dawes recalled that the evening was "one which Philip, subsequently, was kind enough to refer to as one of the most remarkable he could recall... magical. First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Happy Days to Eddie Dawes, from his colleague Philip Larkin", with the recipient's bookplate on the front pastedown. The book is offered together with a typed letter signed, thanking Dawes for his congratulations after being appointed a CBE, and autograph postcard signed, declining an invitation. Edwin Dawes (1925-2023) was Professor of Biochemistry at Hull University and met Larkin there in the early 1960s, when the poet was the chief university librarian. The two soon became friends, and Larkin later nominated Dawes to chair the library committee. As well as a distinguished scientist, Dawes was an historian of magic and a practising magician. The American illusionist David Copperfield described him as "one of the great, if not the greatest, magic historians of my lifetime" (quoted in The Times, 17 March 2023). Larkin and Dawes occasionally attended Hull Magicians' Circle dinners together. Larkin was typically scathing about one in a letter to Kingsley Amis: "Dull non-day... a pissy evening attending the annual dinner of the Hull Magic Circle nay, stare not so. Its president is my chairman" (31 March 1979). He was more positive about a 1982 dinner party hosted by Dawes and his fellow magician Dale Salwak. Dawes recalled that the evening was "one which Philip, subsequently, was kind enough to refer to as one of the most remarkable he could recall... magical in every sense for, after dinner, Dale changed into evening dress and performed his well-known sleight-of-hand act, complete with recorded accompaniment, for an audience comprising solely Philip, my wife and myself" (Salwak, p. 24). Following Larkin's death in 1985, Dawes founded and chaired the Philip Larkin Society; in that role, he led a successful campaign to have Larkin commemorated in Poets' Corner. High Windows is Larkin's final major poetry collection and includes his celebrated poem "This Be The Verse". "The first printing, according to Charles Monteith, sold out in three weeks, a record - in Faber's experience - for a cased volume of new verse" (Bloomfield). READ MORE Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Together with two items of correspondence on Larkin's letterhead: a typed letter signed (187 x 203 mm), single sheet written on one side only, dated 20 June 1975, and an autograph postcard (85 x 140 mm), written on both sides, dated 1 May 1979. High Windows: a fine copy in like, unclipped jacket. Letters lightly creased, in excellent condition. Bloomfield A10a. Dale Salwak, ed., Philip Larkin: The Man and His Work, 1989.

'High Windows' is the final collection of poems by Philip Larkin, published in 1974. It explores themes of existentialism, morality, and the human condition.