Letter from Philip Larkin, Warwick, England, to Karl Lehmann, 1947 April 2 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning Lehmann's appreciation of Larkin's second novel, A Girl in Winter, which Larkin felt was "a rather limited production." Larkin reports his lack of progress on another book and tells Lehmann that: "When I found, after finishing Winter, that I was not likely to do another one for some time, I started studying for a library exam that will come off in June. This has occupied all my time, VERY NASTILY. I don't even feel sure of passing, and I spend my time studying. You must be glad to be past all such nonsense." Of their fellow undergraduates, Larkin reports that "I have practically lost touch with everybody else except Kingsley Amis." Larkin mentions that: "I seldom dream now. Publishing this last book has polished up my shadow no end: I now stammer much less & dare ring people up with impunity. If I were confidently 1/2 way through a book I shd feel a lot better." A postscript regarding his first novel, published the previous year, states that "Jill shd be available from the F[ortune] Press through WH Smiths -- or any low chemist in London."