Ulysses. by JOYCE, James

New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1935. Large 4to. Original brown buckram embossed in gilt from a design by LeRoy H. Appleton to upper cover and lettering in gilt to spine, with upper edge pebbled, else uncut. Housed in an original tan papered slip case by the Chelsea bindery. Pp.xviii, 363. Illustrated by Henri Matisse with twenty-six plates, consisting of six soft-ground etchings, printed by hand, and twenty lithographic drawings, made as studies for the etchings, printed on thin colored papers. Interior hinge very lightly cracked, otherwise fine. Case cracked at lower edge and upper edge and spine slightly soiled, otherwise good. Limited edition run of 1500 copies, this being No. 938 Signed by Henri Matisse on the colophon to one of the rear end papers. Includes etchings depicting the Calypso, Aeolus, Cyclops, Nausicaa, Circe and Ithaca episodes. With an introduction by Stuart Gilbert who at Joyce's request edited the Odyssey Press edition of this novel, generally considered the most authoritative text of the book. The first illustrated edition of Ulysses. George Macy first approached Matisse to illustrate Ulysses only two years after it was infamously banned in the US for obscenity. The artist confessed that he had never read the work, and so Macy provided him with a French translation, although many believe that he never read the novel before beginning the compositions. It could be this reason why all of the illustrations are controversially taken from Homer, a factor which could have contributed to Joyce's reluctance to sign the entire edition. Macy writes that the morning after having given him the book, "M. Matisse reported that he had read the book, that he understood its eighteen episodes to be parodies of similar episodes in the Odyssey, that he would like to give point to this fact by making his illustrations actually illustrations of the original episodes in Homer...the preparatory drawings [were] reproduced with the soft-ground etchings (Matisse's only use of this medium) recording the evolution of the figures from vigorous sketches to closely knit, if less spontaneous, compositions" (The Artist and the Book ). One of the most famous and desirable productions of the Limited Editions Club.