AUBADE [with] A TYPED SIGNED LETTER FROM PHILIP LARKIN TO BRYNMOR JONES (1984)

First edition, first printing. Limited edition of 250 copies, initialled by Philip Larkin and the illustrator/printer Kathleen Gray Schallock. With the addition of Schallock's compliments slip, a manuscript letter on Penstemon Press-headed from her to fellow printer Carol Blinn of The Warwick Press (the previous owner of this copy), two flyers for the press, and a prospectus for this edition. Printed "[i]n soft gray and silver tones of ink on stark white Fabriano, pewter gray roma, earth gray Japanese handmades, and a deadly quiet gray Richard de Bas wrapper with an antique silver-lined envelope ruled in silver. Bound with Chinese silk and silver threads." (from the prospectus). The frontispiece lithograph by Schallock is printed from stone. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean and bright throughout. The grey card wrapper and envelope show a couple of very small light 'marks', clearly glitches in hand-made paper-making process.

Initialled by Philip Larkin in black ink and Kathleen Gray Schallock in pencil to the rear colophon. Numbered 212 (of 250 copies) in pencil to the same page. Writing to Kingsley Amis on 12 August 1977, Larkin reported that "Poetry, that rare bird, has flown out of the window and now sings on some alien shore. In other words I just drink these days … I wake at four and lie worrying till seven. Loneliness. Death. Law suits. Talent gone. Law suits. Loneliness. Talent gone. Death. I really am not happy these days." Three years had passed since the publication of High Windows, and no further collections would appear before he died in 1985. It was during these melancholy, poetically barren years, however, that he wrote 'Aubade' slowly took shape between April 1974 and late November 1977 and was completed shortly after the death of the poet's mother. "[M]y in-a-funk-about-death poem", as he described 'Aubade' to to Barbara Pym, was printed in the 'Times Literary Supplement', 23 December 1977 and, except for a handful of occasional poems, would be his swan song. Larkin clearly had its opening lines in mind while writing the letter to Amis quoted above: "I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. / Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. / In time the curtain-edges will grow light. / Till then I see what's really always there: / Unresting death, a whole day nearer now […]" Well received both in public and private, the poet's replies to responses from, among others, John Betjeman and W. G. Runciman are printed in Anthony Thwaite's edition of Larkin's letters. Harold Pinter, who sent a congratulatory telegram after reading the poem, later recited 'Aubade' on BBC television. This edition was issued by the Wisconson-based Penstemon Press in 1980, each of the 250 copies initialled by Larkin and the printer/illustrator Kathleen Gray Schallock. (Larkin allegedly signed with initials because he felt his payment didn't warrant a full signature.) Included with this copy is a typed, hand-signed letter dated 30th May 1984, from Larkin to Brynmor Jones. Betjeman, the poet laureate, had died on 19th May 1984 and Jones must have suggested that Larkin would be a likely candidate to fill the vacant post. "As regards the Laureateship", Larkin replies: "I think there is a fairly wide field, and no very obvious choice. My own drawback, as I am sure you will appreciate, is that I stopped writing poems about seven years ago, and the country cannot very well have a dumb Laureate. Perhaps they think they will throw me into the Tower of London on bread and water until I produce something." Ted Hughes eventually took up the laureate position on 28 December 1984. (Bloomfield A15).