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Article: Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- September 6, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Philip Larkin was a dedicated poet. His three volumes, distinguished by a fine accuracy of language and a wholly individual subject-matter, became an English classic in his own lifetime. Of course, there was other writing - two novels, book reviews, criticism of jazz records - through all this remained marginal, if time-consuming, compared with the central poetic achievement. Nevertheless, it constituted a "writer's life," and Andrew Motion was right to choose this as the subtitle of his biography.
And yet, one cannot help thinking, it was not much of a life. There was little drama there for the biographer, nothing to compare with Shelley's ups and downs, let ...