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The papers of British writer Julian
Barnes span a thirty-year career from his first published fiction
A Self-Possessed Woman (1975) to his
recent novel,
Love, etc. published in 2000. Represented
in the collection are Barnes's novels
Metroland (1980),
Before She Met Me (1982),
Flaubert's Parrot (1984),
Staring at the Sun (1986),
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
(1989),
Talking It Over (1991),
The Porcupine (1992),
Cross-Channel (1996),
England, England (1998), and
Love, etc. (2000). Also included are crime
novels Barnes wrote under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh,
Going to the Dogs (1987),
Duffy (1980),
Fiddle City (1981), and
Putting the Boot In (1985). Articles by
and about Barnes, journalism, correspondence, clippings, photographs, and
posters are also present. |
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The collection is organized in four series:
Series I. Works, Series II. Articles, Series III. Correspondence, 1971-1998,
and Series IV. Career-related. |
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The Works Series begins with two holograph
notebooks containing early material relating to most of Barnes's books. In his
description of his writing methods, Barnes indicated that "There might be an
occasion when the germ--or rather the pre-germ--of a novel makes an earlier
appearance in a travel diary or a personal journal…." The series continues in
an alphabetical arrangement of works by title. In addition to the novels, the
collection contains Barnes's unpublished non-fiction work
A Literary Guide to Oxford, production
material for
Letters from London (1995) and
Evermore (1996), and screenplays
Growing Up in the Gorbals, and
The Private Wound. Screenplay adaptations,
written by others, for
Love, etc., and
Metroland are also
present. |
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Describing his papers, Barnes wrote "everything I do from the
moment I am faced by what I recognize as the possibility--or
pre-possibility--of a novel is contained within the Archive. I have never
thrown away more than the occasional (more or less duplicate) page of
typescript. My Archive therefore contains 98 or 99% of all the marks I make on
paper as a novelist." For most of these works, the creative process includes
early typescript drafts through printer's copies, proofs, production material,
and reviews. Occasionally, holograph notes and "scheme cards" are also
present. |
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Series II. Articles includes articles and book reviews,
Letter from London, tear sheets from
The New Yorker (1990-1994), and
typescripts of Barnes's TV criticism published in the
Observer (1982-1986). |
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The
Correspondence in Series III dates from 1971-1998 and includes fan mail,
publisher's correspondence, and letters from acquaintances and writers
including Eric Ambler, Kingsley Amis, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Burgess, Graham
Greene, Elizabeth Hardwick, Michael Horovitz, Arthur Koestler, Philip Larkin,
Frances Partridge, Myfanwy Piper, V. S. Pritchett, Dodie Smith, and Auberon
Waugh. |
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The career-related material in Series IV includes articles about
Barnes, publicity clippings from 1980-1991, ephemera, and a rather large
collection of photographs, mostly taken for publicity purposes. |
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Numerous
editions of Barnes's works received with the collection, mostly foreign
imprints, were transferred to the HRC Library, along with his commercially
recorded books on tape and tapes of interviews and readings. Included with the
books is a special limited edition of
Cross-Channel issued on the occasion of
Barnes's fiftieth birthday which he inscribed to the HRC. |
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The collection
is in good physical condition and is open for research. |
