Larkin at Sixty

by Anthony Thwaite (editor)

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was the best-loved poet of his generation, and the recipient of innumerable honours, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, and the W H Smith Award.In Larkin at Sixty, a tribute to him on his sixtieth birthday, twenty writers came together to celebrate the man and the poet with specially written pieces. Some of them are reminiscences, some look at aspects of his professional life as librarian, some consider his taste as it revealed itself in his writings on jazz and in his editing of the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. The relationship between his novels and his poems is examined, and several essays explore the poems themselves. Three poets contribute hitherto unpublished poems. Together, all these illuminate with affection and insight the work, the man behind the work, and the appeal of both.The editor, Anthony Thwaite, edited Larkin's Collected Poems, Selected Letters and Further Requirements, and became one of Larkin's chosen literary executors

148 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1982

About the author

Anthony Simon Thwaite, OBE, is an English poet and writer. He is married to the writer Ann Thwaite. He was awarded the OBE in 1992, for services to poetry. He was mainly brought up in Yorkshire and currently lives in Norfolk.
During World War II he stayed with relations in the United States. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath (1944–49) and subsequently read English at Christ Church, Oxford.
He taught at Tokyo University from 1955 and 1957, and for a year in 1985. He has worked for BBC Radio, the New Statesman as literary editor, and from 1973 to 1985 as editor of Encounter with Melvin J. Lasky. He is one of the literary executors of Philip Larkin, and the major editor of Larkin's work.