Ian Hamilton (critic)

Robert Ian Hamilton (24 March 1938 – 27 December 2001) was a British literary critic, reviewer, biographer, poet, magazine editor and publisher.

Early life and education

He was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk. His parents were Scottish and had moved to Norfolk in 1936. The family moved to Darlington in 1951. Hamilton's civil engineer father died a few months later.

A keen soccer player, at the age of 15 Hamilton was diagnosed with a heart complaint. Unable to play games, he developed his interest in poetry. At the age of 17, in sixth form at Darlington Grammar School, Hamilton produced two issues of his own magazine, which was called ''The Scorpion''. For the second issue he sent a questionnaire to various literary figures in London asking if there was any advice they could give young authors. Around 50 or so replies were received from figures such as Louis Golding. After leaving school, Hamilton did his National Service in Mönchengladbach, Germany. He then attended Keble College, Oxford, and within a year started a magazine ''Tomorrow''. The first issues were patchy, but the magazine grew in confidence, publishing an early play by Harold Pinter in its fourth and final issue.

Career

In 1962, Hamilton started ''The Review'' magazine, with Michael Fried, John Fuller, and Colin Falck. ''The Review'' became the most influential postwar British poetry magazine, publishing a wide variety of writers and both short and long pieces. It ran until its 10th-anniversary issue in 1972.

In 1964 ''The Review'' published a pamphlet of Hamilton's poems entitled ''Pretending Not to Sleep.'' It was one of three pamphlets that made up issue no. 13 of ''The Review''.

In 1965, to make ends meet, Hamilton took a three-day-a-week job at ''The Times Literary Supplement'', which soon grew to be the position of poetry and fiction editor, a post he held until 1973.

In 1970, Faber and Faber published '' The Visit'', a slender book of Hamilton's poems. This was a somewhat reworked and expanded version of the 1964 pamphlet. The 33 poems contained in ''The Visit'' all reflect Hamilton's concise writing style. Hamilton subsequently spoke about the relationship between the stressful circumstances of his personal life – in particular the mental illness of his wife – and the brevity of the poems. "You had to keep your control however bad things were; you had to be in charge. And I suppose the perfect poem became something that had to contain the maximum amount of control – and of suffering."

In 1974, Hamilton started ''The New Review'', a large-format glossy magazine. Its first issue was 100 pages and featured many well-known writers. Again, it was influential in literary circles, and encouraged younger writers. But the magazine depended on Arts Council funding, and when that stopped, four and half years and 50 issues later, ''The New Review'' closed.
Hamilton then wrote freelance, including regularly for the ''New Statesman''.

In 1976, another pamphlet of poems by Hamilton appeared, entitled ''Returning'', which contained 12 new poems.

After his friend poet Robert Lowell died in 1977, Hamilton wrote a biography of him, which was well received. Encouraged by that, Hamilton began writing a biography and critique of J. D. Salinger. Famously averse to publicity, Salinger took legal action in '' Salinger v. Random House'' to prevent the book being published and was successful in denying Hamilton the right to quote from his letters or paraphrase them. Hamilton, however, was able to incorporate these frustrations into the book, entitled ''In Search of J.D. Salinger''.

From 1984 to 1987 Hamilton presented the BBC
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