PHILIP LARKIN. — The Less Deceived. Poems.

The Marvell Press, Hessle, 1st Edition, First Edition, first issue with the flat spine. The misprint "floor" for "sea" in the first line of the poem 'Absences'. Slim 8vo. 43pp + [ii] list of subscribers. Green cloth lettered in gold at the spine. Printed on Abbey Mills antique laid paper. Poet Dannie Abse's copy, with his inked ownership signature to the front free endpaper. Damp marking to the corners of the boards. Free endpapers lightly browned. A good copy in dust wrapper, with the price 6/- nett printed to the base of the front panel, as required for this first state. The wrapper split into two parts and with about half of the spine panel now absent. A respectable copy of the author's third major collection of verse. The first edition comprised a total of 700 copies, and just 300 of those were initially bound. This first issue sold out swiftly and the remaining 400 were then bound, these later examples produced with rounded spines and so easily identifiable as the second issue. Both the first and second issue are now most uncommon, but this first issue somewhat more so. Bloomfield A6., Good, Poor