On January 13, 1941, James Joyce died,
following an operation for a perforated
duodenal ulcer. Below are excerpts from
the NY Times obituary, or you can read
the whole thing here if you don’t mind
taking the time to register.

January 13, 1941
OBITUARY
James Joyce Dies; Wrote 'Ulysses'
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Associated Press
James Joyce, June 1939
URICH, Switzerland, Monday, Jan 13- James
Joyce, Irish author whose "Ulysses" was the
center of one of the most bitter literary
controversies of modern times, died in a
hospital here early today despite the efforts
of doctors to save him by blood transfusions.
He would have been 59 years old Feb. 2.

Joyce underwent an intestinal operation
Saturday afternoon at the Schwesternhaus
von Rotenkreuz Hospital. For a time he
appeared to be recovering. Only yesterday
his son reported him to have been cheerful
and apparently out of danger.

During the afternoon, however, the writer
suffered a sudden relapse and sank rapidly.
He died at 2:15 A.M. (8:15 P.M., Eastern
Standard time).

His wife and son were at the hospital when
he died..... (note: Nora & Stephen actually
arrived at the hospital after Joyce died.
He died alone.)

.....Was Born in Dublin

The writer was born Feb. 2, 1882, in Dublin,
Ireland, the son of John Stanislaus Joyce
(The Simon Dedalus of "Ulysses" whom Bloom
hears singing in the Ormond bar) and Mary
Murray Joyce. His father supposedly had one
of the finest tenor voices in Ireland. James
Joyce had an equally fine voice.....

Below is a beautiful painting of Joyce by
Pedro Mozsi, a Czech Romany Gypsy
now living and working as a painter and
illustrator in Broome. You can read his
James Joyce story here.

FOR SALE - My copy of A James Joyce Yearbook,
edited and with a foreword by Maria Jolas, Paris
Transition Press 1949. In fine condition with
original glassine wrappers. First edition, limited
to 1000 numbered copies only. Illustrated with
photographs and manuscript facsimiles, errata
slip bound in rear. Currently, another copy of
this book is being offered by Buddenbrooks for
$800.

Hate to let it go but economic circumstances
make it necessary - to a good home only.

Use the email link above to contact me if
interested. Here’s more information, gathered
from the internet:

A James Joyce Yearbook

Scarce, especially with the original publisher's
glassine wrapper. Despite the ambitious title of
"Yearbook," this was the only issue ever
published. Includes Stuart Gilbert's article,
"Sketch of a Scenario of Anna Livia Plurabelle,"
as well as articles such as "Last Meeting with
Joyce" by Heinrich Straumann, "In Memory of
Joyce" by Paul Léon, "Recollections of James
Joyce" by Phillipe Soupault, "The Finn Cycle" by
Clémence Ramnoux, and others.

-----

And more here:
In 1949, Maria Jolas and her Transition
Press published an extraordinary book called
the James Joyce Yearbook. History buffs and
Paris expat enthusiasts instantly acknowledge
the role that "transition" contributed to 20th
Century literature.

Hermione Lee reviews Carol Loeb Schloss’s
new book about Lucia Joyce here.

Here’s an excerpt from this interesting
review - two actually:

“ 'Lucia Joyce': No She Said No” :

“I quote so much because this sort of fervid
glop is served up on many pages. It is a
rhetoric that damages the book's credibility,
making it read more like an exercise in wish
fulfillment than a biography.......

......The best feature of Shloss's book is its
vivid, informed description of these experi-
mental dance groups in 1920's Europe, and
her account of how Lucia came into contact
with modernism and surrealism while her
father was writing the ''Wake.''

I did NOT get this book for Christmas, should
anyone be wondering.

The Punishment Book at Clongowes was
where the Jesuits kept track of all the
pandyings and other punishments meted
out to students. Bruce Bradley, author of
James Joyce’s Schooldays, searched through
Clongowes archives and found the Punishment
Book for the 1880s. Three pandyings of James
Joyce are listed including one on the 14th of
March 1889, when Joyce received four strokes
for the rare offense of “vulgar language”.
Joyce was seven years old.

Christmastime - A good time to cover the dinner
scene in Portrait or The Dead, but I imagine
if you’re reading this blog you know all about
both of those Christmas’s.

So here’s a piece of trivia:
James Joyce met Oliver St John Gogarty
on Dec 24th in 1902.

You can find a photo of Gogarty (aka Buck
Mulligan) here.

My opinion of Gogarty changed after I found out
about his involvement with Michael Collins. More
about this in my July 28th entry.

I found this quote here.

"The only demand I make of my reader," Joyce
once told an interviewer, "is that he should
devote his whole life to reading my works."

sorry for not posting.
down with the flu...
way down

Joyce's Places

Jorn Barger has a wonderful page on all
the places Joyce lived, with a numbered
map and information such as:

“Primary cities: Dublin (1882-1902), Paris
(1902-03), Dublin (1903-04), Pola (1904-05),
Trieste (1905-06), Rome (1906-07), Trieste
(1907-15), Zurich (1915-19), Trieste (1919-20),
Paris (1920-1939), Zurich (1940-41)”

And this generalization:

“- Youth (1882-1904): Ireland, with rare jaunts.
- Impoverished exile (1904-20): centers on
northern Italy
- Wealthy exile (1920-31): centers on northern
France and London
- Depressed exile (1932-41): centers on
Switzerland”

That Jorn Barger; what would we do without him? See
the whole lovely thing here.

In Finnegans Wake, the number 1132 appears
in each chapter in one way or another. In his
“Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake”, Campbell
attributes the use of this number as follows:
the number of the fall is 32 (The law of falling
bodies=32 feet per second); the number 11
represents renewal and redemption.

Later, Campbell changed his mind. While reading
Romans, he came across a verse that epitomized
what he felt Joyce had in mind in Finnegans Wake:
“For God has consigned all men to disobedience,
that he may show his mercy to all”. Campbell
thought - Oh I must write this down, this is
exactly what Joyce was talking about- and write
down “Romans, Chapter 11, verse 32”. Then it hit
him. He subsequently believed that Joyce had this
chapter/verse in mind when he worked 1132 into
Finnegans Wake.

In Berkeley for Thanksgiving, I stopped by
Shakespeare and Co this morning. Lovely
store. The bookseller on duty saw me looking
at the Joyce section and had a few extra
Joyce books lined up for me at the counter
when I went to pay for my purchases. He
also asked me if I’d be in Dublin next June.
Yep, I told him. He’s going too. I think it will
be very crowded week in Dublin. .

It was nice to meet a kindred spirit.
Shakespeare and Company is located on
Telegraph a few blocks from campus.
Kitty-corner to Shakespeare & Co is Cody’s
Books. I highly recommend them both.

The Guardian has a new article out on Sean
Walsh’s film Bl.,m (pronounced Bloom).
There’s an excerpt below or you can check
out the entire article here.

“...The film is faithful to the text but does
not treat it as sacred. Molly's famous closing
and climaxing soliloquy, for example, is
used to open the film and frame the action.
The plot, as much as one exists, remains
largely intact, although there are no scenes
of Bloom at the newspaper office, where he
works as a canvasser for advertisements.
Dialogue is drawn directly from the novel,
and the internal thought processes of the
three central characters are presented as
voiceovers. Walsh says his overriding
intention was to make the film work as a
story, to be at once intelligent and accessible."

Whoops! The NY Times artcle is Members only.
You can try this site for Kenner information
if you don’t want to hassle with the Times.

“Hugh Kenner, the critic, author and professor
of literature regarded as America's foremost
commentator on literary modernism, especially
the work of Ezra Pound and James Joyce, died
yesterday at his home in Athens, Ga. He was 80.”

The above was excerpted from the NY Times.
See the whole article here

I received an email from some anonymous
person who thinks I have money. I don’t,
but some of you might so I am passing this
information on:

“..... the forthcoming auction of the Alfred T.
Cowie Collection of James Joyce books, one
of the most comprehensive Joyce collections
to ever come on to the open market, will take
place on Dec 11th.

Highlights include:

* Pomes Penyeach (1932), one of twenty-
five copies, signed by Joyce
* Portrait of the Artist (1917), 1st UK edition
in the exceptionally rare dust wrapper
* Ulysses, numerous important editions
including 1st Paris and London editions, plus
illustrated editions signed by Joyce and Matisse
* Signed limited editions of Mime of Mick and
the Maggies, Haveth Childers Everywhere, etc.
* Two Essays (1901), fine copy of Joyce's first
printed book....”

More info here .

The first Frenchman to purchase a copy
of Ulysses was Andre Gide. (Actually, by
purchase, I mean fill in an order blank at
Shakespeare and Co to receive a copy of
the book when it arrived. ) The first
American: Ernest Hemingway, one of
Sylvia Beach’s best customers. Later
that same day, Ezra Pound personally
delivered a subscription blank filled in by
W.B. Yeats and put in his order.

Imagine Andre Gide, Ernest Hemingway
and Ezra Pound all coming in your book-
store on the same day. That’s what I call
a good day at work.

Have just started to read “Girls Lean Back
Everywhere” by Edward de Grazia and
have a couple of nice quotes to share
with you. Ezra Pound referred to the last
chapter of Ulysses as “Joyce’s Mollylogue”.

T.S. Eliot agreed with Pound that it was
one of the best things Joyce had ever done
and wondered how anyone could ever write
again “after the immense prodigy of that
last chapter”. Eliot also said, “I wish, for my
sake, that I had not read it.”

John Nolan has a new art exhibit in Dublin.
It’s entitled “Journey Into The Abstract" and
runs until 2004-02-28 at the Westin Hotel
in Dublin.

John Nolan is well known in Ireland for his
portrait of James Joyce which covers the
facade of no. 15 Ushers Island, Dublin City -
The Joyce House.

Here's an interesting comment about Joyce's sense
of Irishness from a 1997 Joyce list entry by Matt B.

"M. G. wrote:

> Joyce himself, however, as I understand it,
>always regarded himself as British.

Matt B responded:
... Joyce was very much anti-British in political outlook.
While his own sense of Irishness has always been a
touchy issue(what with his shouts of Erin go Bragh
after the Brits agreed to partition on one hand
and then his 'let my country die for me' attitude in
dichotomy), but JJ also supported the Sinn Féin
party in its infancy--even anachronistically including
it in CYCLOPS a year before its founding. Of course,
Griffith's anti-semitism and Catholicism would have
forbidden the dealings with a freemason jew like
Bloom, but that's just nitpicking, isn't it. Anyway,
no more time; but JJ was definitely not a man who
considered himself British--of course, like Bloom et
al, he did carry a passport that stated that he was
a member of the Empire on which the unfortunate
yahoos believed the sun never set upon, but
considered the cause of Irish independence from
Brittainia a worthy endeavor--just not the way
Cusack, Pearse, and the rest threw violence into
the mix. .....Slan go fill, "

The past few days have been so eventful that I
haven't read or thought much about James Joyce,
until today and today he's occupied my thoughts
a lot. Thoughts like: "in 13 days I'll be unemployed;
that's not so bad, James Joyce was unemployed
most of his life" and thoughts like "I'll be able to sit
in a cafe and write, despite money worries - just like
James Joyce"

Yes, I'm soon to be completely unemployed. scary.
And tomorrow's my birthday. Damn. I'll have a
better post for you tomorrow.

One good piece of news: the little caterer's down
the street offer a small variety of dinners four
days a week that one can pick up and take home.
This week they are offering Irish Stew. Won't that
make a nice dinner tomorrow night...