James Joyce

Image: Copy number 17 of the first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, signed by the author (Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922). Carlton Lake Collection, (PR 6019 O9 U4 1922, copy 3), Harry Ransom Center.

#1: Copy number 17 of the first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, signed by the author, 1922

by CLARE HUTTON

This is the first article in a series devoted to objects that tell the story of women who supported author James Joyce and the publication of his landmark novel, Ulysses (1922). Learn more in the exhibition, Women and the Making of Joyce’s Ulysses, curated by Dr. Clare Hutton and on view through July 17, 2022. Subscribe to eNews to receive all the articles in this series.

James Joyce’s Ulysses, published in Paris by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, the occasion of Joyce’s 40^th birthday, would have been a very different book had she not been so generous in her support. He had first considered writing a work called Ulysses in 1906, but struggled to make significant progress during the years of upheaval brought about by World War I, health problems, and financial difficulties. When the serialization of Ulysses in New York ground to a halt owing to legal proceedings against The Little Review during the autumn of 1920, Joyce told Beach that his “work will never come out now.” He had met her at a party a few days after his arrival in Paris in July that year. Joyce had quickly become a regular visitor to Shakespeare and Company, Beach’s English language lending library and bookshop, which functioned as a kind of salon and meeting place for writers and artists, conveniently positioned opposite “La Maison des Amis des Livres,” the bookshop owned by Beach’s lover, Adrienne Monnier.

[Read more…] about Women and the Making of Joyce’s Ulysses: A History in Ten Objects #1