“The Bitter Lemon Days” | Another Round at the Pillars (Cargo Press, 1999)


Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. “The Bitter Lemon Days.” Another Round at the Pillars: Essays, Poems & Reflections on Ian Hamilton. Edited by David Harsent. Cornwall: Cargo Press, 1999. Pp. 151 + [5]. 24 x 15.3 cm. ISBN: 1899980067.

From the jacket: “For his sixtieth birthday friends of the distinguished poet, critic and biographer Ian Hamilton, have gathered to offer an international festschrift to honour his writings and the remarkable influence he has exerted on his generation.”

Julian Barnes’s essay appears on pp. 15-21. It was also published in The Guardian (17 April 1999). Other authors contributing to the collection include:

Blake Morrison
A Alvarez
Andrew Motion
Harold Pinter
Peter Dale
Hugo Williams
Douglas Dunn
Karl Miller
Alan Jenkins
David Harsent
Christopher Reid
Ian McEwan
Craig Raine
Dan Jacobson
Simon Gray
Peter Porter
Michael Hofmann
John Fuller
Charles Osborne
Michael Fried
Clive James
Colin Falck

“Mrs Thather Remembers” | Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Essays (Allen Lane, 1999)


Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. “Mrs Thather Remembers.” Selected and with a foreword by Ian Hamilton. The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Essays. London & New York: Allen Lane & The Penguin Press, 1999. Pp. 554 [555] + [5]. 24 x 16 cm.

Julian Barnes’s essay appears on pp. 543-[555]. The dust jacket of this example lists sale prices for both the U.K. and Canadian, but not the U.S. The essay was published in Barnes’s collection Letters from London.

“The Salinger Affair” (London Review of Books, 1988)


Notes on this item: Julian Barnes. “The Salinger Affair.” London Review of Books, vol. 10, no. 19, 27 October 1988: 3-5.

Julian Barnes reviews In Search of J. D. Salinger by Ian Hamilton. Barnes’s review caused problems in his relationship with Hamilton, but the two later maintained their friendship. This copy is signed by Julian Barnes and was purchased from the Estate of Rolland Comstock.