born Aug. 9, 1922, Coventry, Warwickshire, Eng.
died Dec. 2, 1985, Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire
English poet.
Educated at Oxford, Larkin became a librarian at the University of Hull, Yorkshire, in 1955; he would remain a librarian the rest of his life. He wrote two novels before becoming well known with his third volume of verse, The Less Deceived (1955), which expressed the antiromantic sensibility prevalent in English verse of his time. Later poetry volumes are The Whitsun Weddings (1964), High Windows (1974), and Aubade (1980). All What Jazz (1970) contains essays he wrote as a jazz critic for The Daily Telegraph (196171).