Letters of James Joyce- First Edition.

Sixteen years after James Joyce's death. We are at last able to present in this volume more than 400 of his letters and notes, only a few of which have appeared in print before. From the first letter in this collection, written to Hendrik Ibsen when Joyce was nineteen years old, to the last one, written to the Burgomaster of Zurich in the dark December of 1940, the character of an astonishing genius is revealed. The letters throw light not only on his broad literary aims but on the day-to-day developments of Joyce's books, from Dubliners to Finnegans Wake: to readers interested in literary process, in watching the growth of a masterpiece, these letters are fascinating. For instance, the unfolding of the whole plan for Ulysses through the eight years of its writing is revealed, and also the publishing vicissitudes and the legal battles fought over this book.

Even more exciting, for most readers, will be the revelation of personality- and a more simple and lovable one than they will have suspected. Here is the family man deeply and tenderly concerned about his children, and about the relatives, especially his father, left behind in Ireland.

Here is a lover of fun; here also the invalid suffering agonies, and bearing pain and deteriorating eyesight with patience and good humour; throughout his vicissitudes, supported by a confident, but never arrogant, faith in his own genius.

The editor, Mr Stuart Gilbert- and friend of Joyce throughout many years- contributes a memoir and notes on names and references. Mr Richard Ellman supplies a Joyce chronology. The book is illustrated with a photograph and with facsimiles of Joyce's varied handwriting.

Hardback with unclipped dustcover(some repairs). Half Title, Frontispiece, Title, Contents- The Letters. Introduction. A Chronology of the Life of James Joyce. 437 pages text-letters and index. Slight offset to endpapers.

Very Good