Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
James Joyce
-
Standard Name: Joyce, James
Irish exile JJ
, hailed by Yeats
as a new kind of novelist even before his first novel was published, became one of the leading practitioners of modernism. As well as poems, a play, and a volume of short stories, he produced three important novels, from the last of which he put out several separate sections long before the whole appeared. Joyce encountered obstacles to publishing almost all his books, raised by censors both official and self-appointed. Without the tireless patronage of Harriet Shaw Weaver
and Sylvia Beach
, his last two books might never have been published at all.
Joyce
was launching a lawsuit against Samuel Roth
at this time for illegally pirating Ulysses in the United States. He stated in a deposition against Roth that the book was not his property but...
Wealth and Poverty
Sylvia Beach
Ironically, SB
was by then doing considerably better financially and physically without the entanglements of Joyce
's affairs and the business with Ulysses.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. W. W. Norton.
329-30
Occupation
Sylvia Beach
SB
offered to publish James Joyce
's Ulysses, a proposition he gratefully accepted.
Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company. Harcourt, Brace.
47
Leisure and Society
Sylvia Beach
Hemingway
was scheduled to read alone but was frightfully anxious, so he asked Stephen Spender
, whom he had met in Spain, to come along and read too. Hemingway was still nervous on the...
Occupation
Sylvia Beach
SB
handed James Joyce
the first copy of Ulysses on his fortieth birthday; she placed the second copy in the window of Shakespeare and Company
.
Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company. Harcourt, Brace.
84
Health
Sylvia Beach
SB
had suffered from health problems all her life, but as the responsibilities of owning a bookstore and publishing Ulysses grew, her migraines increased in length and intensity. The headaches began in her pre-teen years...
Occupation
Sylvia Beach
SB
and James Joyce
signed a contract for her to publish his Pomes Penyeach, a baker's dozen to be sold for one shilling.
A baker's dozen numbers thirteen, one more than there were pennies...
Wealth and Poverty
Sylvia Beach
SB
struggled for most of her life to be financially independent. At an early date she wrote: I must get at something profitable. My uselessness utterly depresses me.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. W. W. Norton.
32
Her career as a bookshop owner...
Occupation
Sylvia Beach
James Joyce
asked SB
to sign an official contract over the publication rights of Ulysses, a decade after the verbal agreement between them to have Shakespeare and Company
publish it.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. W. W. Norton.
309
Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company. Harcourt, Brace.
204
Textual Production
Sylvia Beach
Though the essays were solicited and overseen by Joyce
, SB
did much of the editorial work and designed the cover.
Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company. Harcourt, Brace.
SB
published Our Exagmination Round his Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress, a collection of essays on Joyce
's Finnegans Wake.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. W. W. Norton.
283
Publishing
Sylvia Beach
Rather than being a historical opus about life in the heyday of Paris, this is an engaging mixture filled with sketchy and witty recollections. When William Bradley
and Alfred Knopf
approached SB
more than...
Publishing
Sylvia Beach
SB
published with Harcourt Brace
the Joyce
portions of her memoirs as a Christmas gift book entitled Ulysses in Paris.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. W. W. Norton.
412
Textual Features
Sylvia Beach
The memoir reads like a homage to the men and women who enriched her life personally, and the world of letters generally. SB
's generosity and goodwill made her censor much about her difficulties with...
Textual Production
Samuel Beckett
A critical essay on James Joyce
, included in Our Exagmination Round his Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress, was SB
's first adult published work.
Federman, Raymond, and John Fletcher. Samuel Beckett. University of California Press.
