Volume 31, Number 11 · June 28, 1984
Required Reading
By Robert Craft
Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955–1982
by Philip Larkin
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 328 pp., $9.95 (paper)
Philip Larkin, poet, critic, novelist, jazz buff, though scarcely 'visible' in the past, has become the Cham of the contemporary British literary scene. With the exceptions of his best-known line of verse, 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad,' his scathing essay on Auden, and the unmentionable anthology,[1] the ascent was accomplished quietly: 'I have never read any poems in public, never lectured on poetry, never taught anyone how to write it.' The 'required' in the title of the new book means, first of all, 'produced on request,' and Larkin makes a point of never having proposed an article or review to an editor, and of merely developing 'someone else's idea' ('He liked to have his mind made up for him,' Larkin writes of his hero Louis Armstrong). In view of his reputation as the most sought-after reviewer on the current labor market, his output is small, and the miscellaneous articles are neither numerous nor long. But whatever the occasion, they are pieces to be read and reread.
Review, 1982 words
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