transition, Paris (April 1927–April-May 1938). “Opening Pages of a Work in Progress,” (April 1927) No. 1, pp. 9–30; and “Fragment from a Work in Progress,” (April-May 1938) No. 27, pp. 59–78.
(76K)  (81K)

POMES PENYEACH | BY | JAMES JOYCE | SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY | PARIS | 1927
 (30K)  (42K)

Contents: p. [1], blank; p. [2], copyright notice: Copyright by James Joyce | 1927 ; p. [3], fly-title; p. [4], BY THE SAME WRITER |[rule] | CHAMBER MUSIC. | DUBLINERS. | A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST | AS A YOUNG MAN. | EXILES. | ULYSSES ; p. [5], title-page; p. [6], blank; pp. [7–21], text (thirteen verses, titles in capitals head each poem, place and date of composition close each poem); p. [22], Of these Pomes thirteen | copies have been printed | on Dutch handmade paper | and numbered 1 to 13. ; pp. [23–24], blank. Errata slip of three lines laid in facing the colophon on p. [22]: ERRATA | in ‘Flood’ for ‘in thine’ read ‘is thine’ | in ‘Nightpiece for ‘bleak insense’ read ‘bleak incense’ | in ‘A Prayer’ for ‘O spare me’ read ‘O spare me!’. Published: 5 July 1927; printed by Herbert Clarke, 338 Rue Saint-Honore Paris; 5013 copies in two issues: 5000 copies in small paper, 1 shilling or 12 francs (13 copies in large paper not intended for sale); bound in light green paper over boards, (small paper) 12.3 x 9.5 cm. and (large paper) 12.8 x 13.2 cm.; printed on cream white wove, (small paper) 12 x 9.3 cm. and Dutch handmade (large paper) 12.7 x 13.2 cm. [Slocum & Cahoon A24; JJB A.IX.1]27 

As with the production of Ulysses, Joyce took a keen interest in the color of this unpretentious book: he wanted it to resemble the color of a green apple. Pomes Penyeach was the second and last volume of verses Joyce wrote, and the only other Joyce work that Beach’s Shakespeare & Company published. Joyce reserved the large paper copies for close friends, including its publisher, who received copy No. 1.28 Item 52 is copy No. 2 of this rare, large paper issue. Joyce simply initialed the book–as he did with all the other copies of this edition of Pomes Penyeach–and inscribed it: “To | H. W. | gratefully | J. J. | 6.7.27.”

More information on these items can be found in the Joyce Bibliography.
 

Pomes Penyeach | by | James Joyce | Initial Letters Designed and Illuminated by | Lucia Joyce | The Obelisk Press | Paris | Desmond Harmsworth Ltd | London | 1932 | [ornament]
(243K)

Contents: pp. [1–3], blank; p. [4], [copy number and Joyce’s signature]; p. [5], title-page; p. [6], blank; pp. [7–32], text on recto of each leaf, verso blank; p. [33], colophon: This edition is limited to | twenty five copies, all on Japan | nacre, numbered 1–25 and | signed by | James Joyce ; p. [34], printer’s statement: Imprimerie Vendome | Marcel Servant | 338 Rue Saint-Honore | Paris ; pp. [35–6], blank. Collation: 18 leaves (36 pp.): 9 folio sheets, unbound, folded and loosely laid one within the other, one edge (head or tail) trimmed, fore-edge untrimmed, 25.5 x 33 cm.; one sheet of transparent tissue is tipped in before each page of holograph text, on which the title and text of each poem is printed in green in the lower left-hand corner. Published: September 1932; 25 numbered copies and 6 copies “hors commerce”; 1,000 Francs; bound in pale green, silk cloth over boards portfolio, pale green ribbon ties at center of fore-edge, 34.2 x 26.2 cm.; gilt stamped in gold on front cover in facsimile of Joyce’s handwriting: Pomes Penyeach | by | James Joyce. The colophon, title-page, and text of all poems is printed in black in facsimile of Joyce’s handwriting and an illuminated, multi-colored initial heads each poem. The holograph poems are untitled. [Slocum & Cahoon A27; JJB A.IX.4]

The Obelisk edition of Pomes Penyeach was the most elaborately designed of all Joyce’s books. The holograph text was printed as an ordinary line-cut reproduction, but the vivid colors and complex patterns of Lucia Joyce’s lettrines were reproduced in pochoir by cutting each color onto a separate plate, and applying the plates, one at a time, by hand. The paper (called Japon nacre or iridescent Japanese vellum) was mould made of bamboo fibers and raw silk and imported from Japan. Lucia Joyce’s illuminations also adorn Joyce’s The Mime of Mick Nick and the Maggies (item 61; figure 16) and Storiella as She Is Syung (item 62). This is copy No.18, signed “Harriet Weaver | November 1932 | London.” The portfolio and its contents were both damaged, likely in the fire at Weaver’s London flat in May 1934. Lucia Joyce and her Aunt Eileen were Weaver’s guests the next February at which time Lucia inscribed the copy to her aunt: “this is for Eileen | as it was burned | Lucia 24–2–35 | Viva l’Irlanda.” This copy, once separated from Weaver’s library, belonged to Jonathan Goodwin and was sold at auction by Sotheby Parke Bernet, on 12 April 1978 (sale 4109B). It is now reunited with Weaver’s other Joyce books at McFarlin Library, Special Collections.

More information on these items can be found in the Joyce Bibliography.
 

Forty-four leaves of galley proofs of all three fragments published by The Black Sun Press (but not the preface): “The Mookse and Gripes,” “The Muddest Thick that was Ever Heard Dump” and “The Ondt and the Gracehoper,” consisting of 23 large and 21 smaller sheets. There are also 4 ruled sheets that appear to be notes for C.K. Ogden’s Preface. Wrapped around the smaller sheets, is 1 more large, folded leaf on which someone wrote: “Proof sheets of Fragments | from James Joyce | Work in Progress | Black Sun Press | 2 rue Cardinale | Paris | 15 April 1929.” The smaller  sheets–with “The Mookse and Gripes” and “The Ondt and the Gracehoper”– are thick quarto laid paper, which measure 21 x 16.5 cm. with vertical chain lines that run 2.7 cm. apart, and are trimmed on all sides. “The Mookse and Gripes” is paginated 1–13 and “The Ondt and the Gracehoper” is paginated 14–21, probably by the printers. In Tales Told these fragments correspond to pp. 1–16 and 45–55. The larger sheets–with the remaining  untitled fragment– are thinner square octavo wove,  slick paper, which measure 26.8 x 20 cm. and are trimmed on all sides. That fragment, “The Muddest Thick that was Ever Heard Dump” is paginated 22–44. The text is unevenly centered on the leaves.

Textual Collation: The proofs of “The Mookse and the Gripes” and “The Ondt and the Gracehoper” are both copies of the second setting of the text, with only a few minor corrections on pp. 6, 7, 10–12 and 15, 19, 20 and 21, probably not in Joyce’s hand, in pencil and black ink (only on p. 44). In both cases, these pages are probably the first of two known copies of those second settings. As the cover-letter states, they were received on 15 April and revised soon afterwards. None of the corrections on this copy of “The Mookse and the Gripes” were made on the other duplicate copy of that setting (Yale 9.3), but some of those on this copy of “The Ondt and the Gracehoper” were also made on Yale 9.9. Presumably, these manuscripts were not returned to the printer, as the majority of the instructions on them are not implemented on the subsequent settings. After 15 April, Joyce requested the latest setting of the text and what he was given was technically another copy of the second set (Yale 9.3 and 9.9). The printer incorrectly labeled Yale 9.3 and 9.9 as 3rd proofs; there are in fact no textual variants between those copies and the proofs at Tulsa as set. (A previously uncataloged copy the proofs of “The Ondt and the Gracehoper” now at the University at Buffalo are a prior setting (the first) of the proofs, and several revisions between it and the subsequent setting of proofs at Tulsa and Yale 9.9 are evident.) There are no textual variants between the copies of the second setting of proofs at Tulsa and Yale 9.9. Joyce heavily revised Yale 9.3 and 9.9 and they were returned to the printer to set up the subsequent proof stage. The McFarlin Library copies were not the printers’ copies for the subsequent settings of the text.

The proofs of “The Muddest Thick that was Ever Heard Dump” are duplicate copies of the first setting of the text for Tales Told of Shem and Shaun, probably also printed in April 1929. (Note that the title is absent from this manuscript, just as it is on British Library 47483, f. 43). There are numerous corrections, revisions and additions on all pages, not in Joyce’s hand, in pencil and black ink. Most of the overlay on this copy of the first set also appears on the other copy of that set (BL 47478, fs. 43-65), along with further overlay not on Tulsa’s copy. This was not the printers’ copy for the second setting of the text. None of these manuscripts were reproduced in the James Joyce Archive.

Provenance: Purchased from Lew David Feldman’s House of El Dieff, Inc. in 1973; acquired by McFarlin Library at auction from Christie’s on 20 May 1988 (catalog 72, item 247).

Tales Told is both a first edition of interest and a working fragment of Finnegans Wake. Rather than present an entire episode, as Crosby Gaige had with Anna Livia Plurabelle, Tales Told contains fragments that Joyce already knew would be in three different books of Finnegans Wake, albeit a decade later. They are two entertaining and satirical fables and a night lesson: “The Mookse and the Gripes,” “The Muddest Thick That Was Ever Heard Dump” and “The Ondt and the Gracehoper,” all of which were revised versions of the pieces that had already appeared in transition (item 51).
 

Tales Told of [in red] | Shem and Shaun [in red] | Three Fragments from | Work in Progress | by | James Joyce [in red] | THE BLACK SUN PRESS | RUE CARDINALE | PARIS | MCMXXIX
(66K)

Contents: pp. [1–2], blank; p. [3], copyright: … Copyrighted by James Joyce, 1929. ; p. [4], blank; pp. [5–6], blank; p. [7], half-title; p. [8], blank; p. [9], title-page; p. [10], blank; p. [11], Contents ; pp. [12–13], blank; p. [14], [portrait of James Joyce by Constantin Brancusi with tissue guard sheet]; pp. I–XV, Preface by C. K. Ogden; p. [16], blank; pp. 1–16, text of THE MOOKSE AND THE GRIPES ; pp. 17–43, text of THE MUDDEST THICK THAT WAS EVER HEARD DUMP ; p. [44], blank; pp. 45–55, text of THE ONDT AND THE GRACEHOPER ; p. [56], blank; p. [57], colophon: This first edition | of Tales Told of Shem and Shaun by | James Joyce, with a preface by C. K. | Ogden and a portrait of the author by | Brancusi, printed in hand-set Caslon in | June 1929 for and under the direction | of Harry and Caresse Crosby at their | Black Sun Press (Maître-Imprimeur | Lescaret) Rue Cardinale, Paris, is limited | to 100 copies on Japanese Vellum signed | by the author, 500 copies on Holland | Van Gelder Zonen and 50 copies Hors | Commerce. | The entire edition is for sale at the | Bookshop of Harry F. Marks | 31 West 47 Street New York | [number of copy stamped]; pp. [58–64], blank (pp. [61–64] are folded under rear wrapper). 650 copies in three issues: Nos. 1–100, $30; Nos. 101–500, presumably $20; bound in white paper covers, 21 x 16.8cm; printed on front cover: [title-page], and on spine (from top to bottom): FRAGMENTS JOYCE [in red] 1929, and on back cover: [publisher’s device]; printed on Holland Van Gelder Zonen, top edge trimmed, 21 x 16.5 cm. Issued in glassine and a green paper-covered slipcase with silver tape. [Slocum & Cahoon A36]

The Black Sun Press brought together a community of diverse artists. Constantin Brancusi was a pioneer of modernist abstract sculpture, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and kept a workshop in Montparnasse. His drawings have become some of the most reproduced and popular images of Joyce. For this work, Joyce commissioned the preface from his friend and admirer, C.K. Ogden, the British writer, linguist and founder of the Cambridge Weekly, a magazine for which Thomas Hardy, G.B. Shaw, H.G. Wells and many other modernists regularly wrote. Ogden also translated Anna Livia Plurabelle into Basic English and prompted Joyce to record the only fragment of Finnegans Wake ever, a memorable passage from Anna Livia Plurabelle (item 89).This copy is Weaver’s Hors Commerce that she signed: “Harriet Weaver | June 22nd 1929.”
 

ANNA LIVIA PLURABELLE | BY JAMES JOYCE | WITH A PREFACE | BY PADRAIC COLUM | [Publisher’s device] | NEW YORK: CROSBY GAIGE: 1928
 (295K)  (128K)

Contents: pp. [1–4], blank; p. [1], half-title; p. [2], blank; p. [3], title-page; p. [4], colophon: COPYRIGHT : 1928 : CROSBY GAIGE | No. [copy number written in ink] | Eight hundred copies printed | Distributed in America by Random House | Each copy signed by the author | Typography by Frederic Warde | [author’s signature] | PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ; p. [5], divisional title: Preface ; p. [6], blank; pp. 8-19, text of Preface; p. [20], blank; p. [1], divisional title: Anna Livia | Plurabelle ; p. [2], blank; pp. 3–[61], text; pp. [62–64], blank. Published: 20 October 1928; printed by: Princeton University Press; 850 copies; $15; bound in brown cloth over boards, 18 x 12 cm., blind stamped on front cover: a border of three rules (the inner rule dentelle) within which is gilt stamped an inverted triangle of three rules (the inner rule dentelle) and gilt stamped on spine: [double rule] | [decorative rule] | ANNA | LIVIA | PLURA- | BELLE | [ornament] | [decorative rule] | [rule] | [decorative rule] | [ornament] |[decorative rule] | [rule] | [decorative rule] | GAIGE | [decorative rule] | [double rule]; Printed on cream-white wove paper, watermarked: NAVARRE, head gilt, other edges untrimmed, 17.5 x 11.2 cm. [Slocum & Cahoon A32]  

Anna Livia Plurabelle was the most commercially successful of all Joyce’s fragments that were published in fine press editions during the printing-arts renaissance of the early part of the century. Frederic Warde, the type designer for the edition, was the printer for Princeton University Press from 1921–24. Warde is best-known for his two versions of the fine, italic typeface modeled after the work of the sixteenth century scribe, printer and type designer Lodovico degli Arrighi da Vicenza. Warde’s Arrighi italic Vicenza and Vicentino were cut for hand-setting in Paris in 1925 and were used for this edition. Crosby Gaige simultaneously issued a limitation of fifty copies bound in black cloth and printed on green paper; none of these copies were numbered or signed. These are Weaver’s copy No. 33 and an unnumbered copy on green paper. McFarlin Library, Special Collections also holds Connolly’s No. 454, and Léon’s No. 530.
 

HAVETH CHILDERS | EVERYWHERE [in green] | FRAGMENT FROM | WORK IN PROGRESS | by | JAMES JOYCE | HENRY BABOU AND JACK KAHANE [in green] | PARIS | THE FOUNTAIN PRESS. – NEW YORK | 1930
(62K)

Contents: folio endpaper; p. [3], half-title; p. [4], colophon: THIS VOLUME CONSTITUTING THE ONLY | COMPLETE ORIGINAL EDITION OF A | FRAGMENT OF WORK IN PROGRESS, | COMPOSED BY HAND IN FRESHLY CAST ELZEVIR CORPS 16, COMPRISES : 100 | COPIES ON IMPERIAL HAND-MADE IRIDES- | CENT JAPAN, SIGNED BY THE WRITER | Nos 1 TO 100 ; 500 COPIES ON HAND- | MADE PURE LINEN VIDALON ROYAL | (SPECIALLY MANUFACTURED FOR THIS | EDITION) Nos 101 TO 600 ; HALF OF | EACH CATEGORY BEING FOR THE UNITED | STATES OF AMERICA. THERE HAVE ALSO | BEEN PRINTED : 10 COPIES CALLED | WRITER’S COPIES ON IMPERIAL HAND- | MADE IRIDESCENT JAPAN, Nos I TO 10 ; 75 COPIES CALLED WRITER’S CO- | PIES ON PURE LINEN HAND-MADE | VIDALON ROYAL, Nos 11 TO 85. | COPY No [number stamped in black]; p. [5], title-page; p. [6], copyright statement: All rights of publication, reproduction and translation reserved. | copyright by Henry Babou and Jack Kahane, France, 1930; pp. 7–[73], text; p. [74], printer’s statement: PRINTED AND MADE IN FRANCE BY DUCROS ET COLAS | MASTER–PRINTERS, PARIS 1930 ; folio endpaper. Published: June 1930; 685 copies in four issues: $20 (Vidalon Royal) and $40 (iridescent Japan); bound in white paper covers, 28 x 19.2 cm. (Vidalon Royal), 28.4 x 19.2 cm. (Japan), printed in green and black on front cover: HAVETH CHILDERS | EVERYWHERE | BY | JAMES JOYCE, and in black, vertically on spine (from bottom to top): JAMES JOYCE – HAVETH CHILDERS EVERYWHERE ; 575 copies printed on Vidalon Royal, watermarked: VIDALON HAUTE , untrimmed, unopened, 28 x 19 cm.; 110 copies printed on iridescent Japan, 28.4 x 19 cm. Issued in glassine wrapper, in green slipcase, gilt on edges and facings, 29.2 x 19.5 cm.; copies in the 100 series issued in an additional three-panel gilt case within the slipcase. [Slocum & Cahoon A41]

Joyce and his publishers took full advantage of the small-press printing arts with Joyce’s fragments. This edition of Haveth Childers Everywhere, known in short as HCE, was issued in more specialized limitations than any other of Joyce’s titles. In Finnegans Wake, HCE is ALP’s complement and the formats of the books reflect the characters whose stories they tell: HCE is as exaggerated as ALP is diminutive. McFarlin Library Special Collections has a copy of all four issues, including No. 656 in the Cyril Connolly Library, a writer’s copy in the Paul and Lucie Léon Collection and a newly acquired copy No. 8 on Japan Vellum. This is Weaver’s unnumbered, out of series copy (that is otherwise identical to the 500 series). Joyce signed and self-consciously inscribed the book to his patron.
 

HAVETH CHILDERS | EVERYWHERE | FRAGMENT OF | WORK IN PROGRESS | BY | JAMES JOYCE | LONDON | FABER & FABER | 24 RUSSELL SQUARE
(60K)

Contents: p. [1], half-title; p. [2], blank; p. [3], title-page; p. [4], colophon: THIS EDITION | FIRST PUBLISHED IN MCMXXI | BY FABER AND FABER LIMITED | 24 RUSSELL SQUARE LONDON W. C. 1 | PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN | BY TREND AND COMPANY PLYMOUTH | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ; pp. 5–36, text. Published: 8 May 1931; at least 249 copies of this issue; 2s (cloth); bound in yellow cloth over boards, 19.2 x 13.5 cm., gilt stamped on front cover: CRITERION MISCELLANY—No. 25 | [rule] | HAVETH CHILDERS | EVERYWHERE | [star] | JAMES JOYCE ; printed on cream-white laid paper, top edge trimmed, unopened, 18.7 x 12.6 cm.; Issued in transparent tissue. [Slocum & Cahoon A42] 

Faber & Faber published both ALP and HCE in their Criterion Miscellany series. Along with the hard bound edition, they also issued more than 5000 copies in paper covers printed in red and offered at one shilling. According to Faber & Faber’s records, by 17 February 1932, they had sold 6546 copies of ALP and 3655 copies of the HCE (of both issues), with ALP selling 47 copies to HCE’s 10 from 10–17 February.29 Slocum reports that by 11 June 1948, and so sixteen years later, only 10,166 copies in both the cloth and paper issues had been sold of ALP and 249 copies of the cloth and 5,341 copies of the paper issue of HCE had been sold.30 Joyce signed this copy of Haveth Childers Everywhere to the patron to whom he was most often and most deeply indebted: “To | Harriet Weaver | this advance copy | from one who is | always in arrears | James Joyce | London 4.5.931.”
 

JAMES JOYCE [in red] | THE MIME OF MICK | NICK AND THE | MAGGIES | A FRAGMENT FROM [in red] | WORK IN PROGRESS [in red] | [publisher’s device] | MCMXXXIV | THE SERVIRE PRESS [dot] THE HAGUE [in red]
(97K)

Contents: pp. [i–ii], blank; p. [iii], half-title; p. [iv], blank; p. [v], title-page; p. [vi]; note and copyright statement: THE INITIAL LETTER, TAIL-PIECE AND COVER | WERE SPECIALLY DESIGNED BY | MISS LUCIA JOYCE | All rights reserved | Copyright 1933 by N.V. Servire, The Hague (Holland) ; pp. [vii–viii], blank; pp. 1–77, text; p. [78], blank; p. [79], colophon: COLOPHON | Printed on the presses of G. J. Thieme at | Nymegen in | a) twenty-nine copies on Simili Japon of Van | Gelder Zonen, bound in parchment, num- | bered from I–XXIX (of which No. V– | XXIX are for sale), and signed by Mr. James | Joyce and Miss Lucia Joyce ; | b) one thousand copies on Old Antique Dutch, | numbered from 1–1000. | The initial letter, the tailpiece and the cover | were specially designed for these editions by | Miss Lucia Joyce. | this copy is number [number stamped in black, underscored]; p. [78], blank. Published: June 1934; 12s. 6d. or $3.50; bound in cream-white card within white paper covers, glued to spine, printed in blue on front cover: THE MIME OF MICK, NICK | AND THE MAGGIES | [design printed in blue, metallic pale blue and black] | JAMES JOYCE, and vertically on spine (from top to bottom): JAMES JOYCE [dot] THE MIME OF MICK, NICK AND THE MAGGIES , and on back cover: [publisher’s device] | PRINTED IN | HOLLAND ; 1000 copies printed on Old Antique Dutch, untrimmed, 24 x 15.5 cm., 29 copies on Simili Japon of Van Gelder Zonen, head trimmed, 23.8 x 15.8 cm. Issued in glassine and slipcase. [Slocum & Cahoon A43]

Joyce was always interested in the esoteric meaning of numbers and populated his works with characters and events whose quantities and patterns were meaningful. The odd-numbered limitation of 29 special copies of this edition represented Issy and her 28 rainbow girls, the “Maggies.” This is Weaver’s copy No. XXII, with her single typescript page of errata laid in, and was double-signed on colophon by the author and illustrator: “James Joyce | Lucia Joyce.” Weaver also inscribed it: “Harriet Weaver |July 9th | 1934.”
 

STORIELLA | AS SHE IS | SYUNG
(94K)

Contents: endpaper, three fly-leaves; pp. [i–iv], blank; p. [v], title-page; p. [vi], blank; p. [vii], fly-title: A SECTION OF “WORK IN | PROGRESS” BY | JAMES JOYCE; pp. [1-27], text; p. [28], blank; p. [29], THIS BOOK | COMPRISES THE | OPENING AND | CLOSING PAGES | OF PART II: SEC= | TION II: OF “WORK | IN PROGRESS.” THE | ILLUMINATED | CAPITAL LETTER | AT THE BEGINNING | IS THE WORK OF | LUCIA JOYCE | THE AUTHOR’S | DAUGHTER ; p. [30], blank; p. [31], colophon: Of this book One Hundred and Seventy- | five copies have been set in 18-pt. | Centaur type and printed on Arnold | hand-made paper. All copies have been numbered from 1 to 175. One extra | copy lettered “A” has been printed on a | white Japanese mulberry paper and is | reserved for the printer. Copies Nos. 1 | to 25 have been signed by the Author. | This copy is number [copy number written in black] | Completed at the Corvinus Press during | October, 1937. Laus Deo. ; p. [32], blank; three fly-leaves, endpaper. Published: October 1937; printed by: Lord Carlow of the Corvinus Press, London; £2 2s (copies 26–175), or  £3 3s (copies 1–25); Bound in orange vellum over over boards, 32.2 x 26 cm., gilt stamped on front cover: STORIELLA | AS SHE IS | SYUNG, and vertically on spine (from bottom to top): STORIELLA AS SHE IS SYUNG. A SECTION OF WORK IN PROGRESS BY JAMES JOYCE. , and on back cover: [publisher’s device]; printed in black and red on hand-made paper, watermarked: UNBLEACHED ARNOLD, top edge trimmed, gilt, other edges untrimmed, 31.8 x 25.6cm. [Slocum & Cahoon A46]

Storiella as She is Syung was the last, most luxurious and expensive edition of an integral fragment of “Work in Progress” Joyce published before Finnegans Wake. A full year after the publication of transition 23 in July 1935, Joyce received a request from Viscount Carlow asking whether he had something that his fledgling Corvinus Press might publish. Viscount Carlow, George Lionel Seymour (1907-44) founded the Corvinus Press in March 1936 and it published forty-five editions before Lord Carlow was killed during World War II while serving with the R.A.F.  Léon wrote to make it clear to Lord Carlow that Joyce’s interest in publishing anything at the time was primarily motivated by his desire to showcase his daughter’s work. This copy is No. 35 [of 175], inscribed and signed: “To | Paul and Lucie Léon | from their friend | James Joyce | Paris | All Fools’ Day 1938.” This remarkable edition, another of Joyce’s fragments to feature Lucia’s lettrines, was issued in a gray-green slipcase. The Centaur type was designed in 1915 by the renowned American typographer, printer and book designer Bruce Rogers and was cut for monotype in 1929.
 

transition | stories |Twenty-three stories from “transition” | selected and edited by | Eugene Jolas | and | Robert Sage | [publisher’s device] | New York | Walter B. McKee | 1929
(92K)

Contents: pp. [i-ii], blank; p. [iii], title-page; p. [iv], copyright and printer’s statements: COPYRIGHT 1929 BY | WALTER V. MCKEE | MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | BY THE VAIL-BALOU PRESS, INC., BINGHAMTON, N.Y. ;

p. [v], dedication: TO OUR FRIEND | ELLIOT PAUL ; p. [vi], blank; p. vii, contents; p. viii, blank; pp. ix–xii, [preface]; pp. [1–2], blank; pp. 3–354, text. This issue: $2.50; bound in decorated boards with red cloth spine. Issued in a dust jacket designed by Albert Schiller. 

Joyce’s called this contribution to his friend Eugene Jolas’s anthology of stories from transition magazine, “A Muster from Work in Progress.” With it, Joyce “mustered” seven excerpts from “Work in Progress,” which he revised again before they were published in Finnegans Wake a decade later. Like the magazine, the stories Jolas and his co-editor, Robert Sage gathered together here are eclectic. The American, Matthew Josephson, the German, Kurt Schwitters, and the Frenchman, Philippe Soupault were among the Dadists whose works were interspersed with those of Franz Kafka, Kay Boyle and Gertrude Stein. Shortly after Jolas had declared his manifesto for the revolution of the word, he met Joyce on 12 December 1926 and heard the author perform a reading from his work in progress. Later in his “From Jabberwocky to Lettrism,” Jolas explained why the revolutionary language of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake was exemplary: In Ulysses, Joyce “faced resolutely the problem of the disintegration of language. […] He brought into the flux of his narrative of a day in the lives of certain Dubliners the sonorities of the unconscious: hallucinations, dreams, day-dreams, human and bestial cries. Here compound words mingle with meaningful sound-words in a bewildering foliation, and not even the cadences of the lowest animal forces are neglected.” Jolas found here that this “tonal pattern” was even more profound in Finnegans Wake: “Here we witness a titanic effort to orchestrate the language or languages of night, through physiological as well as psychic changes, mythological deformations, pluralities of sound rotating around birth, war, death, resurrection.”31
 

IMAGIST ANTHOLOGY 1930 | COVICI, FRIEDE [facing page] NEW POETRY BY THE IMAGISTS | RICHARD ALDINGTON | JOHN COURNOS * H.D. * JOHN GOULD FLETCHER | F.S. FLINT * FORD MADOX FORD * JAMES JOYCE | D.H. LAWRENCE * WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS | Forewords by FORD MADOX FORD * GLENN HUGHES. 238 pp.

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