Paeans for Porter | Lettered Copy (Bridgewater Press, 1999)


Notes on this edition: Paeans for Porter: A Celebration for Peter Porter on His Seventieth Birthday by Twenty of His Friends. Edited by Anthony Thwaite. London: Bridgewater Press, 1999.

Julian Barnes contributes a piece titled “Postcard to Peter Porter” (Pp. 16-19) for this collection in honor of the poet Peter Porter. Other contributors include: Martin Amis, Alan Brownjohn, Geoffrey Burgon, Wendy Cope, Allen Curnow, Ian Duhig, D. J. Enright, U. A. Fanthorpe, Barry Humphries, Clive James, David Malouf, Les Murray, Sean O’Brien, C K. Stead, George Szirtes, Ann Thwaite, Anthony Thwaite, William Trevor, and Kit Wright.

The limitation page indicates Bridgewater Press issued three editions of this book, as follows:

“This book is published in an edition of 113 copies on Archival Parchment paper. Seventy-five copies, numbered 1-75, are bound in Ratchford Atlantic cloth. Twenty-six copies signed by the contributors, lettered A-Z, are bound in quarter cloth and marbled paper boards. Twelve copies signed by the contributors, numbered I-XII, are bound in quarter Library Calf.”

This contributor’s copy is from Julian Barnes’s personal collection. Also signed by Peter Porter.

Evermore | Standard Edition 1/150 (Palawan Press, 1996)


Notes on this edition: Evermore. London: Palawan Press, 1996.

Julian Barnes’s story “Everymore” was privately printed by Palawan Press in two limited editions. The most limited “Blue Edition” was limited to 50 copies. The “Standard Edition” was limited to 150 copies. Both editions feature text by Julian Barnes with prints by Howard Hodgkin.

The example presented here is the author’s personal copy “AP 4” [Artist Proof no. 4] from an artist’s proof set of 15.

The “Standard Edition” is described on the Palawan Press website as:

“Limited to 150 copies numbered and signed by the writer and the artist. The book, in hand painted blue wrappers, comprises six original etchings. The bound book is encased in a silver clothbound sleeve and enclosed in a cardboard box and sleeve.”

Candide, or, Optimism (Folio Society, 2016; Signed Edition)


Notes on this edition: Voltaire. Candide, or, Optimism. London: Folio Society, 2016. Pp. 202. 26.6 x 22.6 cm.

Translated by Tobias Smollett. Introduction by Julian Barnes. Illustrated by Quentin Blake.

Leather edition signed by Quentin Blake in an edition of 25 copies (not for sale to the public).

The limitation page states:

“THIS EDITION OF CANDIDE HAS BEEN TYPESET IN GARAMOND AT THE FOLIO SOCIETY, AND PRINTED ON MODIGLIANI PAPER BY GRAMMLICH, PLIEZHAUSEN, GERMANY. THE BINDING BY BELTZ FINE BOOKS, BAD LANGENSALZA, GERMANY, IS IN FULL NIGERIAN GOATSKIN LEATHER BLOCKED WITH A DESIGN BY THE ARTIST. THE EDITION IS LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES FOR SALE TO MEMBERS OF THE FOLIO SOCIETY, AND 25 LETTERED COPIES WHICH ARE NOT FOR SALE.”

Evermore | Blue Edition 1/50 (Palawan Press, 1996)


Notes on this edition: Evermore. London: Palawan Press, 1996.

Julian Barnes’s story “Everymore” was privately printed by Palawan Press in two limited editions. The most limited “Blue Edition” was limited to 50 copies. The “Standard Edition” was limited to 150 copies. Both editions feature text by Julian Barnes with prints by Howard Hodgkin.

The example presented here is the author’s personal copy “AP 3” [Artist Proof no. 3] from an artist’s proof set of 10.

The “blue edition” is described on the Palawan Press website as:

“Limited to 50 copies and signed by the writer and the artist. This edition comprises the etchings of the standard edition but in addition each page of the book is hand painted, and two individual prints, signed by the artist, are included. The bound book and the loose prints are enclosed in a sleeve and portfolio box in silver bookcloth.”

Предчувствие за край | The Sense of an Ending (Obsidian, 2012; Bulgarian)


Notes on this edition:  Julian Barnes. Предчувствие за край | The Sense of an EndingSofia: Obsidian, 2012. Pp. 166 [167] + [168]: Colophon. 20 x 13 cm. Translated by Любомир Николов [Ljubomir Nikolov]. ISBN: 9789547692848. (Bulgarian).

Granta Reading Poster (Blackwell’s, 1983)


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″.

The Only Story (London Review Bookshop, 2018; Limited Edition Leather)


Notes on this edition: The Only Story. London: London Review Bookshop, 2018. The book itself measures 22.2 x 14.8 cm. The slipcase measures 23.1 x 15.3 cm.

This is the full leather edition of the signed, limited edition in slip case. The London Review Bookshop also issued a quarter-leather and cloth limited edition. The limitation pages reads:

A special signed limited
First Edition
of
The Only Story
printed on
Longan Book Wove 150gsm paper.
Numbers 1 to 75 have been quarter-bound
in Harmatan Green 16 goatskin with
Dubletta cloth sides and contain one
facsimile page from the author’s notebook.
25 copies (i to xxv), plus 3 hors commerce,
have been fully bound in the same leather
and contain a portfolio of six facsimile pages
of early draft passages and notebook entries.

The book presented here is number 3 of the hors commerce edition mentioned above. It is identical to the full leather edition, except for the “hors commerce” designation.

The Only Story | Foyles Edition (Jonathan Cape, 2018)


Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. The Only Story. London: Jonathan Cape, 2018. Pp. 212 [213] + [3]. 22.3 x 14.4 cm. ISBN: 9781787330931.

In cooperation with Jonathan Cape, Foyles released a limited edition of Julian Barnes’s novel The Only Story with “an exclusive cream dust jacket and ribboned marker, and signed by Julian Barnes”. The edition was limited to 1,500 copies sold through Foyles book shops and website.

The book is nearly identical to the Jonathan Cape first hardback edition. Suzanne Dean, Vintage’s Creative Director, discusses designing the covers both editions on the Foyles website: http://www.foyles.co.uk/blog-Only-Story-Cover-Story

Sketch of Julian Barnes with “Big Honker” (Pam Williams, [2001])


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.

“1981” | 21: 21 Picador Authors Celebrate 21 Years of International Writing (Picador, 1993; Hardback)


Notes on this edition: “1981” by Julian Barnes. Published in 21: 21 Picador Authors Celebrate 21 Years of International Writing.  London: Picador, 1993. Pp. 281 + [1]. 20.3 x 13.6 cm. ISBN: 0330331310. (Hardback).

Also published in paperback.

Contributors include:

1972: Oliver Sacks
1973: Patrick McCabe
1974: Graham Swift
1975: Russell Hoban
1976: Ian McEwan
1977: Charles Nicholl
1978: Caryl Phillips
1979: Jim Crace
1980: Candia McWilliam
1981: Julian Barnes
1982: Clive James
1983: Edmund White
1984: Mark Lawson
1985: Tama Janowitz
1986: David Profumohard
1987: Colm Tóibín
1988: Christopher Hope
1989: Rober McLiam Wilson
1990: Norman Lewis
1991: Kathy Lette
1992: Tariq Ali