one of 400 copies - inscribed by the author to Bruce Montgomery with ALS

A superb association copy, inscribed by the author to his close friend Bruce Montgomery with accompanying ALS.

Inscribed in black ink to the inner panel, 'To Bruce who should have a copy of the original! Affectionately, Philip August 1978'. Together with a 2pp ALS dated 20 August 1978, with a telling remark about his own work, 'If only I'd stuck to JB instead of going off on that ridiculous WBY scenic tour ('Now 'ere on the left we 'ave Knocknarea') the world would have been saved much tedium.' JB and WBY refer to authors John Betjeman and William Butler Yeats, both of whom greatly influenced Larkin.

Larkin met Bruce Montgomery at Oxford, and they remained close friends for the rest of their lives. Larkin was the dedicatee of Montgomery's best known novel The Moving Toyshop (1946) and Larkin returned the favour the following year by dedicating A Girl In Winter (1947) to Montgomery. He would also submit his poems to Montgomery for comment and approval - something to which the poet is presumably eluding with the present inscription. The full extent of the Larkin-Montgomery friendship may not be known until their correspondence, held by the Bodleian Library, is unsealed in 2035.

First edition, one of 400 copies, inscribed by the author; tall 12mo (20.3 x 11 cm); single uncut sheet folded to form 3 panels, printed in blue, 24-line poem to central panel, minor spotting, else very good; together with 2pp ALS, horizontal centrefold, one or two trivial spots to extremities; housed together in maroon cloth solander box, red morocco title labels to spine and upper cover lettered in gilt.

Bloomfield A11.