Ulysses by Joyce, James - 1930

Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1930 First edition, eleventh printing. Presentation copy; signed and inscribed to Martin and Lily O'Connor by Joyce on the half-title: "To Martin and Lily O'Connor, / James Joyce / Wimbledon / Whit Sunday, 1931". Original publisher's teal paper wrappers, lettered in white. Very good, with some wear to the extremities, repairs to spine (see provenance), minor marginal repairs to the first three leaves, and some toning to the otherwise clean pages. Overall, a bright and clean copy. Housed in a custom three-quarter morocco clamshell box. This copy of Ulysses was presented by Joyce to his friends Martin and Lily O'Connor, a wealthy Irish couple living in Wimbledon, London. In addition to owning significant amounts of property in the Wimbledon area, the O'Connors were part of the social elite, and Martin regularly hosted the important literary and political figures of his day, including the Irish novelists Samuel Beckett and James Joyce. The 1930s were a tumultuous time for Joyce, with Sylvia Beach relinquishing her publication rights of Ulysses and both his and his daughter's health failing. As A. Nicholas Fargnoli, Michael Patrick Gillespie explain in their biography, "The family spent much of their time traveling around the continent consulting various specialists." The combination of his physical ailment and new publication responsibilities "made Joyce more reclusive, and he became increasingly dependent on friends like Eugene and Maria Jolas and Lucie and Paul Léon" (James Joyce A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work p.122). Similarly, Joyce relied on the generosity of Martin and Lily O'Connor during his brief stay in England in 1931. Although he famously never returned to Ireland and seldom returned to the United Kingdom, Joyce resided in Wimbledon for a few months prior to his marriage to his long-term partner Nora Barnacle on the 4th of July. Joyce, a known spendthrift, could not fully financially support himself during this period and so was unable to properly monetarily reimburse the O'Connors for their hospitality. As compensation, he offered this copy of Ulysses to the couple and inscribed it to them May 15th, celebrated by the Christian Church as Whit Sunday or Pentecost. While Martin happily accepted the gift, his wife Lily, considered the book the final link of indecency in a long chain of egregious behavior. More introverted and reserved than her husband, Lily was both scandalized by having such a controversial author as her extended houseguest and exasperated by his inability to provide for himself. According to the O'Connor's nephew Edmund Moriarty, Lily was enraged when Joyce presented her with his explicit novel, which was still banned in all English speaking countries, and "attempted to destroy the book, tearing off the front cover." Luckily, Martin was able to prevent her from causing much more damage, and the book has since been repaired. Considered one of the most important works of Modernist literature, Ulysses was first published serially in The Little Review from March 1918 through December 1920 before the first book edition was published by Sylvia Beach in Paris in 1922. Censored for sexual passages deemed obscene, the text was banned in the United States for over a decade before US Judge John Monro Woolsey lifted the ban on December 6, 1933. Notably the first authorized American edition, published by Random House in 1934, was the first widely available English language edition of Ulysses, which was still banned in England and would not be published until the Bodley Head's 1936 edition. Ulysses is a stream-of-consciousness novel that follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin on the ordinary day June 16, 1904. Joyce chose this date because it was when he went on his first date with Nora Barnacle, who would later become his wife; today June 16th is celebrated by Joycians as Bloomsday, which is often commemorated with public readings of Ulysses.. Inscribed by Author. Soft Cover. Very Good.