By so very far the greatest LP cover of all time, 100 copies pressed in March 1961 (Empson received royalties of £15 that December), one of them now in my clutches. That epic, epic photo, chin-beard at its billowing finest, is uncredited on the album cover. It was taken a decade earlier at Kenyon College, Ohio. According to a note in John Haffenden’s biography Empson was playing softball, and had just delivered a deep right-field hit, but foul, because he’d got the rules mixed up with cricket. This is him running ‘determinedly to second base. No one objected’. Who would dare?