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45 JOYCE, James. Ulysses. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922 The premier issue of the defining modernist novel, one of 100 copies signed by the author First edition, first issue, number 74 of 100 copies signed by Joyce; the most desirable issue of the defining modernist novel, increasingly uncommon in private hands. This example is in exceptionally bright condition, and untouched by restoration. The novel was published on 2 February 1922 in imitation of the traditional three-tiered French format aimed at both connoisseurs and readers: 100 signed copies on Dutch handmade paper, as here; 150 copies printed on heavier vergé d’Arches, and the remaining 750 copies on vergé à barbes forming the smaller trade issue. Sylvia Beach’s notebook records that this copy was sold to Librairie Terquem, the Paris bookshop, on 20 May. Terquem
was a significant outlet for the first edition, selling two copies of the signed issue, three copies of the large paper, and twenty- nine copies of the ordinary issue. Following the publication of the superficially similar second edition in October that year, Beach wrote to Joyce, claiming that “Paris booksellers had threatened to boycott Ulysses since they felt she had palmed off a ‘bogus’ first edition of Ulysses on them. To counter this, Joyce sent his 17-year-old son Giorgio and his friends to some of the main bookshops to ask about Ulysses . Brentano’s, he discovered, had one copy of the first edition for sale at 850 francs and said copies were rare. Terquem’s had no copy of the first edition, but had two copies of the second, selling at 200 francs each” (James Joyce Centre). Small quarto. Original blue wrappers, titles to cover in white. Housed in a custom blue cloth chemise and slipcase. A lovely example, contents clean and fresh, minor peripheral nicks and rubbing, central vertical split to spine panel, but sound, the colour of the wrappers remarkably bright and fresh, entirely unrestored. ¶ Slocum & Cahoon A17; Horowitz, Census , p. 117. James Joyce Centre, available online. £300,000 [153726]
INEXHAUSTIBLE LIFE
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