THE LESS DECEIVED

First US edition, first printing. Inscribed by Philip Larkin to Brynmor Jones. Original red cloth lettered in silver and gilt to the spine and front panel, in the supplied first-state dustwrapper priced $3.50 to the front flap. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents, printed on cream laid paper, bright and clean throughout. The cloth is faded to the spine (the red now pink). In the near fine dustwrapper, also faded to the spine and lightly rubbed to folds. First published by George and Jean Hartley's Hull based Marvell Press in 1955, this copy of the first US edition, issued the same year as the inscription, was presumably one of the gratis copies sent to Larkin upon publication.

Inscribed by Philip Larkin in blue ink to the first blank page, "To Dr Brynmor Jones / with kind regards. / One book in return for many! / Philip Larkin / Nov.'60". The allusion is to the significant expansion of the university library under Jones' vice-chancellorship, ascribed by Larkin in his 1979 history of the library to Jones' "vision and enthusiasm". The St Martin's Press edition was published on 22 May 1960 in an edition of 1,131 copies. (Bloomfield A6 (b)).