Bruce Chatwin, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes: A Bibliography of Their First Editions (Colophon Press Bibliography Series, No. 2, 1992)


Notes on this edition: David Rees – Bruce Chatwin, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes: A Bibliography of Their First Editions. London: Colophon Press, 1992. Pp. 24. ISBN (numbered edition): 1874122024; (lettered edition): 1874122032.

An early bibliography of Julian Barnes’s works from Metroland to Talking It Over, including his novels written under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh.

Number 2 in the Colophon Press Bibliography Series, published on 14 February 1992. Published in an edition of 250 numbered copies, with an additional 26 signed copies lettered A-Z.

In the Land of Pain (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)


Notes on this edition: First American edition – New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. $18.00. Julian Barnes’s English translation of La Doulou by Alphonse Daudet. Also includes an afterwords by Barnes titled ‘A Note on Syphilis’, pp. 82-87. 

Descriptive Bibliography:

Title Page: In the Land of Pain | ALPHONSE DAUDET | edited and translated by | Julian Barnes | [Knopf device] | Alfred A. Knopf  New York  2002

Copyright Page: THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK | Translation, introduction, and notes copyright © 2002 by | Julian Barnes | All rights reserved under International and Pan-American | Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by | Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., | New York. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York. | www.aaknopf.com | This translation originally published in Great Britain by | Jonathan Cape, London, in 2002. This work is based | on the unpublished notes of Alphonse Daudet. | Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered | trademarks of Random House, Inc. | ISBN 0-375-41485-1 | LCCN 2002114929 | Manufactured in the United States of America | First American Edition

Collation: 18.3 x 12.9 cm. Pp. [i-ii, i-iv] v-xv [xvi] [1-2] 3-49 [50-52] 53-87 [88-94]. [i-ii]: blank. [i]: ‘In the Land of Pain’. [ii]: ‘[photo] | Daudet and his wife Julia at Champrosay, c. 1892.’. [iii]: title page. [iv]: copyright page. [v-xv]: introduction. [xvi]: blank. [1]: ‘I’. [2]: blank. 3-49: text. [50]: blank. [51]: ‘II’. [52]: blank. 53-87: text. [88]: blank. [89]: ‘Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France, in 1840. Novelist, play- | wright and journalist, his success came through his novels and stories. | He contracted syphilis at the age of seventeen and died at the age of | fifty-seven. | Julian Barnes is the author of nine novels, a book of stories, and a collection of essays. He is the recipient of the Prix Femina and in 1988 was made an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in London.’. [90]: blank. [91]: ‘A NOTE ON THE TYPE | The text of this book was set in Centaur, the only typeface designed | by Bruce Rogers (1870-1957), the well-known American book designer. | A celebrated penman, Rogers based his design on the roman face cut | by Nicolas Jenson in 1470 for his Eusebius. Jenson’s roman surpassed | all of its forerunners and even today, in modern recuttings, remains one | of the most popular and attractive of all typefaces. The italic used to | accompany Centaur is Arrighi, designed by another American, Frederic | Warde, and based on the chancery face used by Lodovico degli Arrighi | in 1524. | Composed by North Market Street Graphics, | Lancaster, Pennsylvania | Printed and bound by R.R. Donnelley & Sons | Harrisonburg, Virginia’. [92-94]: blank.

General description: Binding 19.2 x 13.5 cm. Brown boards, silver blocked on grey board spine. White endpapers. Colored dust jacket lettered in white features an image of a wasp on a medicinal bottle on the upper panel. Lower panel is brown with a dark brown leaf pattern. Jacket art montage by Suzanne Dean. Jacket design by Abby Weintraub. Afterwords titled ‘A Note on Syphilis’ by Julian Barnes, pp. 82-87.

“Hamlet in the Wild West” (Index on Censorship, 1994)


Notes on this edition: “Hamlet in the Wild West.” (Short Story). Index on Censorship, vol. 23, issue 4/5, September/October 1994. Pp. 100-103.

This copy features signatures by Julian Barnes and A.S. Byatt to their respective short stories.

Staring at the Sun | Uncorrected Proof (Jonathan Cape, 1986)


Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. Staring at the Sun. London: Jonathan Cape, 1986. Pp. 195 + [1]. 20.6 x 13.8 cm. Uncorrected Proof in brown, white and orange pictorial wraps. Image is similar to the final dust jacket. White lettering, except ‘UNCORRECTED PROOF’ in black along bottom.

Provisional U.K. publication date set for 18 September 1986, for a provisional price of £9.95.

Talking It Over (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991; Canadian Edition)


Notes on this edition: First Canadian edition – Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. $24.00. The Canadian edition features a cut fore edge, while the nearly identical first American edition has an uncut fore edge.

Descriptive Bibliography:

Title Page: Talking It Over | A NOVEL BY | JULIAN BARNES | [Knopf device] | ALFRED A. KNOPF  NEW YORK · TORONTO | 1991

Copyright Page: THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK | Copyright © 1991 by Julian Barnes | All rights reserved under International and Pan-American | Copyright Conventions. Published in Canada in 1991 by | Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, and simultaneously | in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. | Originally published in Great Britain by | Jonathan Cape Ltd., London. | Grateful acknowledgement is made to Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., for | permission to reprint excerpts from “Three Cigarettes in an Ash | Tray” by Eddie Miller and W. S. Stevenson, copyright © 1982 by | Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., and excerpts from “Walkin’ After | Midnight” by Alan Block and Don Hecht, copyright © 1956, | copyright renewed 1984 by Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. All rights | reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission. | Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data | Barnes, Julian | Talking it over | ISBN 0-394-22239-3 | 1. Title. | PR6052.A6657T34  1991   823’.914   C91-093984-5 | Manufactured in the United States of America | FIRST CANADIAN EDITION

Collation: 21.2 x 13.9 cm. Trimmed pages. Pp. [i-x, 1-4] 5-47 [48-52] 53-67 [68-70] 71-81 [82-84] 85-95 [96-98] 99-109 [110-112] 113-127 [128-132] 133-193 [194-198] 199-211 [212-214] 215-225 [226-228] 229-235 [236-238] 239-275 [276-278] [Note: no even page numbers were printed]. [i]: blank. [ii]: ‘ALSO BY JULIAN BARNES | A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters | Staring at the Sun | Flaubert’s Parrot | Before She Met Me | Metroland’. [iii]: ‘Talking It Over’. [iv]: blank. [v]: title page. [vi]: copyright page. [vii]: ‘to Pat’. [viii]: blank. [ix]: ‘He lies like an eye-witness. | RUSSIAN SAYING’. [x]: blank. [1]: ‘Talking It Over’. [2]: blank. [3]-275: text. [276-278]: blank.

General description: Binding 22.2 x 14.8 cm. Blue boards, black quarter binding silver blocked on spine. Silver stamped initials ‘JB’ to lower front cover and embossed Knopf devise to lower back cover. White endpapers. Dust jacket has black upper panel with multi-colored images of British currency, Patsy Cline, and map of Toulouse. Lettering in white (title) and black (author), with author lettering inset in silver rectangle. Lower panel and flaps are white with black lettering, except the titles of previous novels are in red italics. Jacket design by Carol Devine Carson. Photograph of the author by Miriam Berkley located on back flap.

Talking It Over (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991)


Notes on this edition: First American edition – New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. $21.00. The American edition features an uncut fore edge, while the nearly identical first Canadian edition has a cut fore edge.

Pictured in this entry are three title pages — one unsigned, one signed, and one inscribed from Barnes to Christopher Buckley during a visit to Christopher Hitchens’s home in Washington D.C.: “to Christopher B. | from | Julian B. | Chez the Hitch | October 1991”.

Also photographed is a collection of promotional inserts that accompanied hardback review copies of the novel distributed to reviewers.

Descriptive Bibliography: 

Title Page: Talking It Over | A NOVEL BY | JULIAN BARNES | [Knopf device] | ALFRED A. KNOPF  NEW YORK | 1991

Copyright Page: THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK | PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. | Copyright © 1991 by Julian Barnes | All rights reserved under International and Pan-American | Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by | Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. Distributed by Random | House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Great Britain | by Jonathan Cape Limited, London. | Grateful acknowledgement is made to Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., for | permission to reprint excerpts from “Three Cigarettes in an Ash | Tray” by Eddie Miller and W. S. Stevenson, copyright © 1982 by | Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., and excerpts from “Walkin’ After | Midnight” by Alan Block and Don Hecht, copyright © 1956, | copyright renewed 1984 by Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. All rights | reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission. | ISBN 0-679-40525-9 | LC 91-52725 | Manufactured in the United States of America | FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

Collation: 21.2 x 14.3 cm. Untrimmed pages. Pp. [i-x, 1-4] 5-47 [48-52] 53-67 [68-70] 71-81 [82-84] 85-95 [96-98] 99-109 [110-112] 113-127 [128-132] 133-193 [194-198] 199-211 [212-214] 215-225 [226-228] 229-235 [236-238] 239-275 [276-278] [Note: no even page numbers were printed]. [i]: blank. [ii]: ‘ALSO BY JULIAN BARNES | A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters | Staring at the Sun | Flaubert’s Parrot | Before She Met Me | Metroland’. [iii]: ‘Talking It Over’. [iv]: blank. [v]: title page. [vi]: copyright page. [vii]: ‘to Pat’. [viii]: blank. [ix]: ‘He lies like an eye-witness. | RUSSIAN SAYING’. [x]: blank. [1]: ‘Talking It Over’. [2]: blank. [3]-275: text. [276-278]: blank.

General description: Binding 22 x 15 cm. Blue boards, black quarter binding silver blocked on spine. Silver stamped initials ‘JB’ to lower front cover and embossed Knopf devise to lower back cover. White endpapers. Dust jacket has black upper panel with multi-colored images of British currency, Patsy Cline, and map of Toulouse. Lettering in white (title) and black (author), with author lettering inset in silver rectangle. Lower panel and flaps are white with black lettering, except the titles of previous novels are in red italics. Jacket design by Carol Devine Carson. Photograph of the author by Miriam Berkley located on back flap.

Letters from London 1990-1995 (Picador, 1995)


Notes on this edition: First edition – London: Picador, 1995. £6.99.

Descriptive Bibliography:

Title Page: JULIAN BARNES | Letters from London | 1990-1995 | PICADOR

Copyright Page: [Picador device] | First published 1995 by Picador | an imprint of Macmillan General Books | Cavaye Place London SW10 9PG | and Basingstroke | Associated companies throughout the world | ISBN 0 330 34116 2 | Copyright © Julian Barnes 1995 | The right of Julian Barnes to be identified as the | author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance | with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. | The author and publishers gratefully acknowledge the following for permission | to reproduce previously published material: Faber and Faber for part of | ‘Bridge for the Living’ by Philip Larkin, from The Collected Poems of Philip Larkin, | edited by Anthony Thwaite; Weidenfeld and Nicholson for Alan Clark’s Diaries; | and HarperCollins for Margaret Thatcher: The Downing Street Years. | All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission | of this publication may be made without written permission. | No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied | or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance | with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). | Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to | this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution | and civil claims for damages. | 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 | A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from | the British Library | Typeset by CentraCet Limited, Cambridge | Printed by Mackays of Chatham plc, Kent | This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, | by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, | or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent | in any form of binding or cover other than that in which | it is published and without a similar condition including this | condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Collation: 19.5 x 12.8 cm. Pp. [i-vi] vii-xvi 1-352. [i]: ‘Letters from London | 1990-1995’. [ii]: ‘Other books by Julian Barnes in Picador | Metroland | Before She Met Me | Flaubert’s Parrot | Staring at the Sun | A History of the World in 10½ Chapters | Talking It Over | The Porcupine’. [iii]: title page. [iv]: copyright page. [v]: ‘to Jay and Helen’. [vi]: blank. vii-viii: contents. ix-xvi: preface. 1-352: text.

General description: Binding 19.5 x 13.1 cm. White card wrappers with French flaps. Lettered in black and red with multiple color images reflecting content of essays (chess piece, stamp, pictures of the Royal Family, etc.). Red endpapers. Cover photographs by Andrew Heaps. Author photograph by Gillian Edelstein [sic; Jillian Edelstein] on back flap.


Later Printing (4th Edition): The pagination and jacket art are the same as the first printing, but the front flap shows a price increase to £7.99.

Cross Channel | 50th Birthday Edition (Jonathan Cape, 1996)


Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. Cross Channel: Stories. London: Jonathan Cape, 1996. Pp. 211 + [7].

Special limited edition of fifty (50) copies in celebration of Julian Barnes’s fiftieth birthday.

The text block is identical to the first Jonathan Cape edition, except that the title page features Julian Barnes’s signature and limitation numbering in his hand. Also contains a four page signature tipped in to the front, the first sheet glued to a blue marbled endpaper (pictured). Another four page signature tipped in back, the last sheet glued to a blue marbled endpaper.

Text block: 20.0 x 13.6 cm. Binding: 21.3 x 14.4 cm. First edition sheets with gilt edges, bound in dark blue leather with marbled endpapers. Gold embossed on the front: ‘A SPECIAL EDITION / TO CELEBRATE JULIAN BARNES’S / FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY’. 

Also included with this example is a single sheet invitation from the Directors of Jonathan Cape to a special birthday dinner celebrating the author’s birthday.

The photos below are from the author’s personal copy of this limited edition. Included inside the book is a postcard related to Barnes’s short story “Evermore”.

The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories | “One of a Kind” (Penguin, 1988)


Notes on this edition: “One of a Kind” by Julian Barnes. The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories. Edited with an introduction by Malcolm Bradbury. London: Penguin, 1988.

Julian Barnes’s short story “One of a Kind” is published on pages 400-406. In this example, Barnes has signed his entry. Formerly from the library of book collector Rolland Comstock.

In the Land of Pain | Uncorrected Proof (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)


Notes on this edition: Alphonse Daudet. In the Land of Pain. Translated by Julian Barnes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Pp. 87 + [3]. 18.5 x 13 cm.

Uncorrected Proof in lavendar wraps with black lettering. Publication information and the statement, ‘THIS IS AN UNCORRECTED PROOF’ on bottom of front cover. Preliminary publication date set for 16 January 2003. Title page lists date as ‘2002’. Dust jacket art reproduced on first page. (18.5 x 12.9 cm).