Despite the controversy, Larkin was elected Britain's best-loved poet of the past 50 years in a 2003 Poetry Book Society poll, over two decades after his death, and in 2008, The Times ranked him Britain's finest post-war writer. He remains important to readers and scholars today. Larkin was born on 31 August 1914 into a wealthy family in St Louis, Missouri. His parents had emigrated from Ukraine when they were young people and had made enough money to buy land and build houses. Larkin showed an early interest in literature and at school he read poems by John Keats and Robert Frost. After graduating from Harvard University in 1936, he moved to London where he worked as an editor for the BBC until 1940. During this time, he also wrote some poems which were published in magazines. In 1941, Larkin joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot but was forced to leave the service three years later when he suffered from tuberculosis. He spent the rest of the war writing reviews and essays for various publications including The New Yorker while working on a novel that was never completed. Upon returning to London after the war, he became involved in the poetry scene, contributing poems and criticism to journals such as Oxford Poetry and The Listener. In 1949, he married Monica Jones, who worked as a secretary; she died of cancer four years later.