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of these three European writers was profound, innovative and worthy of attention. Significantly, the essay shows Joyce upholding the principle of artistic freedom and condemning censorship in all its forms – an outlook that he would maintain throughout his career. Joyce claims that the artist should never ‘court the favour of the multitude’. The artist’s primary aim is to stay true to his or her vision: ‘Until he has freed himself from the mean influences about him . . . no man is an artist at all’” (British Library, “The Day of the Rabblement”, accessible online). Joyce’s only previously published works were Et Tu, Healy! , a pamphlet printed by his father when he was aged nine, of which no known copies survive, and an article on Ibsen included in the Fortnightly Review , April 1900. Joyce’s first full book, Chamber Music , was not published until 1907. Octavo, 8 pp. Original pink wrappers printed in black. A fine copy, the wrappers fresh and bright, with only a few trivial marks and slight rusting to staples. ¶ Slocum & Cahoon B1. £15,000 [155032] 94 JOYCE, James. Pomes Penyeach. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1927 First edition, first impression, of this collection of 13 short poems. The first, “Tilly”, takes its title from the Hiberno-English word (from Gaelic tuilleadh , meaning extra or added) for the custom of giving customers one more than the standard dozen. The
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93 JOYCE, James, & F. J. C. Skeffington. Two Essays. Dublin: Privately printed by Gerrard Bros., October 15, [1901] JOYCE’S FIRST OBTAINABLE PUBLICATION First edition, sole impression, of the author’s first obtainable separate publication, a plea for the freedom of the theatre, published when he was 19. Joyce was a student at University College, Dublin in 1901 when he penned The Day of the Rabblement . The essay, and one advocating female equality within the university by Joyce’s schoolmate F. J. C. Skeffington ( A Forgotten Aspect of the University Question ), were both rejected by the University College newspaper, Joyce’s because he mentioned D’Annunzio’s Il Fuoce , which was on the Index librorum prohibitorum , Skeffington’s for its radical content. Instead, the two young men paid to have the essays published as a pamphlet in
a small run which they hand-delivered. The exact number of copies printed is not recorded, but was surely small. The figure was cited as 85 in the 1933 Catalogue of Rare Books by the Ulysses Bookshop, and estimated by Skeffington’s son as around 100 to 200 copies (Slocum & Cahoon). Only a small number of these were preserved, as Joyce would not reach any degree of literary fame for many years. In the essay, Joyce attacks the Irish theatre for catering to popular tastes, and promotes free expression. “Joyce was stirred by a group of fellow university students – the ‘rabble’ of the title – signing a letter of protest on political and religious grounds against the Irish Literary Theatre’s first performance of The Countess Cathleen by W. B. Yeats. Joyce critiques the Irish Literary Theatre for its response to the protest which, Joyce claims, saw them bow to public pressure and ‘prejudice’, and become ‘shy of presenting Ibsen, Tolstoy or Hauptmann’. In Joyce’s opinion, the work
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