An online collection of books and ephemera
Notes on this piece: Volker Kriegel. Artwork featured on the cover of Das Wörterbuch der übernommenen Ideen (1987) with an afterwards by Julian Barnes. This work of art is framed and inscribed by Kriegel to Julian Barnes, dated on Barnes’s birthday:
FLAUBERT, COLLECTING SOME MATERIAL FOR | ‘LE DICTIONNAIRE DES IDEES RECUES’ | FOR JULIAN BARNES 19.1.88 [signed: Volker Kriegel]
Notes on this edition: Zur Erinnerung an Ingrid Heinrich-Jost | In Memory of Ingrid Heinrich-Jost. Privately Printed, circa 1994.
Privately printed memorial pamphlet in honor of Ingrid Heinrich-Jost. The pamphlet includes a letter from Julian Barnes to her husband Gerd Haffmans (Julian’s German publisher). Ingrid Heinrich-Jost co-translated Julian Barnes’s Das Stachelschwein [The Porcupine] (1992).
Notes on this item: Peter Brookes cartoon featuring Julian Barnes’s novel The Sense of an Ending published in The Times (London) on 20 October 2011. Pen ink and watercolor, the work measures 8 x 11.25 inches. Signed and dated by the artist on 20 October 2011.
From Julian Barnes’s personal collection.
Notes on this item: Poster advertising a public reading of three authors — Julian Barnes, A.N. Wilson, and Adam Mars-Jones — at Blackwell’s, Broad Street, Oxford on March 9, [1983]. The reading is assumed to have taken place in 1983, because the poster advertises the “Best of the Young British Novelists”, from Granta No. 7. Bill Buford, the editor of Granta at that time, discussed in a 2013 article how the famous “Best of the Young British Novelists” list came into existence, stating:
“When the list of 20 under 40 was announced in the Sunday Times, on 22 August 1982, there was no noise or ceremony. Hoopla would have been premature because bountiful stacks of British books wouldn’t be in the shops to buy yet. What mattered was the fortnight of frenzied promotion that was then planned for six months hence” (The Guardian, 6 April 2013).
The Granta issue based on the “20 under 40” list was published in 1983.
This particular poster was acquired by a student attending Oxford at the time, was stored in their attic for nearly two decades, and eventually given to Julian Barnes’s bibliographer, Ryan Roberts. When Roberts presented the poster to Barnes, the author inscribed it:
Bloody Hell
This is/was my
first-ever
public appearance
Very pre-Ryan …
Julian Barnes
Barnes also playfully drew glasses and a beard on the photo of A.N. Wilson. Measures approximately 12″ x 17″.
Notes on this item: Promotional card for an event titled, “Man Booker at Birkbeck: Julian Barnes”. Also featured is a promotional poster (42 x 29.5 cm) promoting the same event.
The event took place on Monday, 27 November 2017 at Birkbeck University of London, and featured Julian Barnes in conversation with Professor Russell Celyn Jones. Sponsored by the Man Booker Prize Foundation.
Notes on this edition: Posy Simmonds. Literary Life. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Pp. 96. 26 cm. ISBN: 0224072692.
Simmonds draws Julian Barnes in several of the launch party scenes. Barnes has praised Simmonds’s works several times in various publications. In 2018, he referenced this work was on his bedside table (interview with Rachel Cooke, The Guardian).
Notes on this work: Artist Pam Williams sketched Julian Barnes talking during a literary event. The work was then signed by Barnes with the note “Julian Barnes with a big honker”. Signed by Williams, but undated.
Purchased in October 2001 from David Rees Booksellers, London. Drawing done on A4 paper, presumably the year of purchase.
Notes on this edition: The Borzoi Reader. Alfred A. Knopf, Spring 2001. Complimentary promotional item containing information and an excerpt from Julian Barnes’s novel Love, etc. published by Alfred A. Knopf. Barnes’s excerpt appears on pages 22-23. Also includes quote from Barnes’s editor at Knopf Gary Fisketjon.
Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. “Interference.” Knopf Short Story Sampler, Spring 1996. Pp. 85 + [7]. 21.2 x 13.9 cm.
This sampler includes a mock-up of the title page for Barnes’s short story collection Cross Channel. The story itself appears on pp. 5-26.
Other books included in this sampler:
Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes Postcard featuring a scarecrow with a striking resemblance to the author. The back of the postcard states, “Julian Barnes, 2013 | Installation (wood, cloth, vegetable dye paint) | by Violet du Boulay”.
This example was digitally edited to remove the address of the recipient.