6 Philip Larkin first editions are documented on this shelf, from The North Ship (1945) to High Windows (1974) across 5 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Philip Larkin title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Philip Larkin copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The North Ship — 1945 · The Fortune PressLarkin's first book. Fortune Press first edition 1945 (Bloomfield A1a), one of fewer than 500 copies. Bound in black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, 36 pages, and issued in a thin, fragile printed dust jacket (commonly sunned and chipped, and often price-clipped by the publisher with a later the printed price label). The 1945 Fortune first precedes the revised 1966 Faber reissue, which adds an introduction…. UK Fortune Press (1945) is the true first; the 1966 Faber is a revised reissue ('first thus'), not the true first. No book-club edition. The 1966 Faber is distinguished by its imprint, the added introduction, and the added poem.
- Jill — 1946 · The Fortune PressFirst edition, The Fortune Press, London, 1946; Bloomfield A2(a). There is no printing statement and no number line — Fortune Press books carry none — so identification rests on the 1946 title page with the Fortune Press imprint and the absence of any later publisher's name or of Larkin's 1964 Introduction. Cloth colour is NOT a priority point and must not be used as one: Bloomfield records that the Fortune Press…. Census claim CONFIRMED: The Fortune Press, London, 1946 is the true first, Larkin's first novel and his second book. No contemporaneous American edition exists, so no precedence contest arises. Two later-issue traps must be named. Faber & Faber (London) reissued the novel in 1964 with a new Introduction by Larkin recalling wartime Oxford — a classic 'first thus,' not a first edition, and the single most common…. No book-club issue is documented for the 1946 Fortune Press printing; the press printed in small quantities and issued nothing through the clubs. The reprint tells that matter are imprint-based rather than blind-stamp based: any copy naming Faber & Faber (or a later publisher) on the title page is a reprint, and any copy containing Larkin's Introduction is 1964 or later, since that text is absent from the 1946….
- A Girl in Winter — 1947 · Faber & FaberFirst edition, Faber and Faber, London, 1947; Bloomfield A3. Faber firsts of this period are identified on the verso of the title leaf, which should carry the first-publication statement for 1947 and no added impression or reprint line; the presence of a 'Second impression' or later line rules out the first printing. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, in the publisher's printed typographic dustwrapper…. Census claim CONFIRMED: Faber & Faber, London, 1947 is the true first — Larkin's second and last novel, and his third book. The first American edition is St Martin's Press, New York, 1962, fifteen years later; the census's 1962 date is correct. Because the gap is so wide there is no simultaneity or precedence question at all: the St Martin's issue is a distant reprint rather than a co-first, and only the Faber…. No book-club issue is documented. Later Faber impressions declare the reprint on the title verso, which is the primary tell. The 1962 St Martin's issue is distinguished by its New York imprint and the white snowflake-design jacket; Faber's later paperback issues are the common modern reprints and present no confusion with the 1947 cloth first.
- The Less Deceived — 1955 · The Marvell PressThe Marvell Press first edition, 1955, carries the Hessle, East Yorkshire imprint. First-issue points: a flat (not rounded) spine; the misprint 'floor' for 'sea' in the first line of 'Absences'; the dust jacket with its printed price with the rear panel printed in black only; and a printed list of subscribers on the unnumbered pages 44 and 45. The first 300 copies were bound with a flat spine for late-1955…. The Marvell Press edition (Hessle, 1955) is the true first. Faber never published the true first of this title. Confirm the flat spine, the 'floor'/'sea' misprint, the printed price jacket, and the subscriber list on pages 44-45. No book club edition. Later impressions reset the type, correct the misprint, and omit the subscriber list.
- The Whitsun Weddings — 1964 · Faber & FaberUK Faber first edition, first impression, published 28 February 1964: original cloth lettered in gilt, in the dust jacket designed by Berthold Wolpe and with its printed price (the printed price), unclipped. The first impression carries no reprint statement. Bloomfield A7a. The UK Faber edition (1964) is the true first. No significant American trade first appeared until later. No book club edition. Later Faber impressions add reprint statements.
- High Windows — 1974 · Faber & FaberLarkin's last full collection. UK Faber first edition, first impression, published 3 June 1974 in an edition of about 6,142 copies. Demy octavo, 42 pages, bound in pale grey cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, with a glossy white dust jacket printed in grey (UK price 1.40 on the flap). The copyright page reads 'first published in 1974'; first impressions carry no later-printing line. UK Faber (1974) is the true first; the US Farrar, Straus & Giroux edition (1974) is the first American. No book-club edition. Later impressions add a reprint line on the copyright page.
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