THE MIME OF MICK NICK AND THE MAGGIES. A FRAGMENT FROM WORK IN PROGRESS

The Hague: The Servire Press; New York: Gotham Book Mart, 1934. FIRST EDITION. No. 631 OF 1,000 COPIES on Old Antique Dutch (and 29 special signed copies on Japon.). 241 x 162 mm. (9 1/2 x 6 3/8"). 4 p.l. (first blank), 77, [3] pp.
Plain paper wrappers in white dust jacket, front cover with design by Lucia Joyce printed in blue and silver, blue titling on front cover and spine, ENTIRELY UNOPENED. With the very rare original glassine and housed in a (slightly worn) brown cardboard slipcase. With opening initial and tailpiece designed by Lucia Joyce. Slocum & Cahoon A-43. ◆Glassine a little wrinkled, one corner just lightly bumped, otherwise A PRISTINE COPY.

This is a fragment from "Finnegans Wake," beautifully printed in Holland on thick paper using an unusually large, round, and vaguely Medieval typeface. Our copy could hardly be in better condition--as close to mint as one could hope to find, and with all original components. Joyce's daughter Lucia (1907-82) was diagnosed with schizophrenia when in her early twenties and was permanently institutionalized by 1935. She had desperately tried, and failed, to become a dancer, and Joyce was determined to find a new artistic outlet for her, believing it would be therapeutic. He hit upon the design of ornamental capitals like this one, and even went so far as to give publishers the money to pay her for her work..