"The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring." -James Joyce, Ulysses
February 2, 2022 marks 100 years of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses, published for the first time in it's entirety on the author's birthday in 1922. A modernist novel set in 1904 Dublin, it chronicles an 'ordinary day' in the life of a man named Leopold Bloom as a modern retelling of Homer's epic the Odyssey, 'Ulysses' the Latinized name of the epic's hero Odysseus. Modernist and avant-garde, the novel includes stream of consciousness, numerous allusions, puns, and allegories, atypical punctuation, and an experimental style. Today considered an exemplar of modernist literature, its early publication history is fraught with obscenity trials and divisive reception amongst readers and critics.
James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) is regarded as a cornerstone of modernist avant-garde literature. Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1882, he was the eldest of 10 children. Vignettes of life in Dublin would become a part of his future work, most notably Dubliners, Ulysses, and Finnegan's Wake. He met his future wife Nora in June of 1904--their first courtship was June 16, the day of his novel Ulysses, which is celebrated as Bloomsday in commemoration of the author in Dublin annually.
James and Nora spent much time across Europe as he sought teaching positions and wrote; many times struggling financially, they were often supported by family friends or literary colleagues. Together they had two children, Lucia and Giorgio. Joyce suffered health problems throughout his life and his vision declined in his later years. The Joyces would spend the last two decades of his life--the 1920s to 1940s--embedded in Parisian modernist society. A center in the avant-garde world of arts and literature--and a literary culture without censorship found in the US and Britain, Joyce gained influence in modernist social circles. His experimental style included string of consciousness and new forms for stylistic punctuation and unconventional structure. Early in their time in Paris, James befriended Sylvia Beach who ran the Shakespeare & Company bookshop, a hub of modernist culture.
Ulysses is divided into three books and 18 episodes. It began distribution published in parts through a literary journal beginning in March 1918, but was forced to stop publication in the US in December 1920 following an obscenity trial; the 14th episode was the last installment published as a serial. It was published in its entirety through Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Company on February 2, 1922 - Joyce's 40th birthday. 1000 copies of the 730 page Shakespeare & Company edition were printed by Maurice Darantiere, a printer in Dijon.
Many editions of Ulysses have been created over its first 100 years. Grinnell Special Collections and the Salisbury House Library Collection are home to some unique copies.
The Little Review: Ulysses by James Joyce. Serialized between March 1918-December 1920. Burling Library Special Collections AP2 .L647.
Ulysses was first published in serializations through The Little Review, a Chicago based literary magazine founded by Margaret Anderson and run with counterparts Jane Heap and Ezra Pound. The literary magazine published modernist works and March of 1918, began printing Joyce's new work in parts. Backlash came against the novel as sexually explicit, radically anti-war, blasphemous, and obscene. Although earlier chapters were censored and banned by the USPS, the "Nausicaa" installment of episode XIII published in April 1920 crescendoed to an obscenity trial for Anderson and The Little Review. Charged as violating the Comstock Act for distributing obscene, lewd or lascivious, immoral, or indecent publications through the U.S. mail. The editors were each fined $50 and while the journal would stay in print through 1929, the serialization of Ulysses was halted.
The Salisbury House Library Collection & James Joyce
Carl and Edith Weeks--the original Salisbury House collectors--had an interest in contemporary and avant-garde authors of the 1920s and '30s. Their library grew to include over 20 items of James Joyce's body of work including first editions, deluxe or inscribed copies, and even a printers proof draft with corrections in the author's hand. Among these are a few examples of Ulysses:
Ulysses by James Joyce. Egoist Press, Paris. 1922. First edition.
Following the success of the Shakespeare and Company first edition, a second printing was not far behind. Harriet Shaw Weaver of Egoist Press in London bought the rights to print their own edition using the same printer and plates. Completed in October 1922, this is considered the "first English edition" although for legal reasons and the British ban of the work, it was created and distributed entirely in France. On behalf of the London press, John Rodker oversaw the printing and manufacturing of the edition and based in Paris, managed incoming orders and private shipments. Copies were mailed through direct order around the world, attempting to circumvent bans in the US and Britain. 2000 copies were created on handmade paper with an identical imprint to the first edition produced earlier that year. Reportedly 500 copies were seized and burned by the New York Post-office Authorities.
Ulysses by James Joyce. The Odyssey Press, Hamburg. 1932. First revised European edition in two volumes.
The US censorship was lifted with the ruling of the 1933 court case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, in which literary freedom of expression was granted to include the title; it remained banned from Britain until 1936. Prior to this, import of the titles was discouraged and monitored--if confiscated by authorities, the books would be destroyed. First available in December 1932, this two volume edition "may be regarded as the definitive standard edition, as it has been specially revised, at the author's request, by Stuart Gilbert". Incorporating revisions to errors and errata of past editions, it quickly became a standard for scholars and a basis for many later editions.
Ulysses by James Joyce, with illustrations by Henri Matisse. Limited Editions Club, New York. 1935.
1500 copies were produced of the Limited Editions Club version, all bearing Matisse's signature with the colophon at the back of the book. Joyce signed 250 deluxe editions which were available for $15, an increase from the standard $10 edition for subscribers. Joyce was upset when he learned that Matisse's illustrations were drawn from Homer's Odyssey, not his novel or episodes of the epic retold through the modern Dublin-based story. Matisse supplied six etchings and twenty drawings in total to the finished edition design.
Word index to Joyce's Ulysses by Miles Hanley. University of Wisconsin Press. Madison, Wisconsin. 1937.
This word index--also known as a concordance--composes a list of all words and their occurrences over the course of Ulysses, which totals 265,222 words. Hanley was a professor of English and phonetics at the University of Wisconsin. In a section "What is it good for?", the index is recommended as a tool for students of style, imagery, and literature, linguists, and "for psychologists interested in the process of association, it provides a means of tracing the stream of consciousness as presented by Joyce".
See more from the Salisbury House Library Collection in the Magic Box soon!
Want to see more James Joyce? Special Collections is open to researchers 1:30-5pm Monday-Friday or by appointment.
The Salisbury House Library Collection is being processed, but open for research now. The project archivist can assist you finding topics or titles of interest. Contact us at archives@grinnell.edu.
Outside image credits: James Joyce photographed by Bernice Abbot in 1928. MOMA. | Photograph of James Joyce chatting with Shakespeare and Company bookshop owner Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier. The British Library via Getty Images. | Image of a first edition of Ulysses from Shakespeare and Company, 1922. Wikimedia.
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Grinnell College Special Collections