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

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.

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.

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.

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.

But the magazine depended on Arts Council funding, and when that stopped, four and half years and 50 issues later, The New Review closed.

His experience with Salinger inspired Keepers of the Flame, Hamilton's 1992 book about the history of literary estates and unofficial biographers.

In 1999, Cargo Press published Another Round At The Pillars,[4] a collection of "essays, poems and reflections on Ian Hamilton" to celebrate his 60th birthday, with contributions from a range of prominent authors and poets, including Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Harold Pinter and Clive James.

Taking Samuel Johnson as his inspiration, he chose 45 dead 20th-century poets and assessed their achievement with his customary economy and wit.

The critic James Wood includes an anecdote about Wood in his study The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel (2004): One London lunchtime, many years ago, the late poet and editor Ian Hamilton was sitting at his usual table in a Soho pub called the Pillars of Hercules.

But Hamilton, narrowing his eyes, responded to this feebleness in a tone of weary stoicism, and said in a quiet, hard voice, "Well, none of us likes it.

"[6]The author Andrew O'Hagan recounts a near-identical story, but with Hamilton's rebuttal delivered to a "whey-faced" newspaper writer rather than a poet.