Ulysses. by JOYCE, James - 1922

Paris: Shakespeare and Company,, 1922. Quarto (259 x 202 mm). Contemporary purple sheep, dated 1922 in gilt at foot of front turn-in, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others uncut; original printed wrappers bound in. Sheep with small areas of wear, purple dye a little sunned and faded on front board, inscribed half-title slightly toned, an excellent copy. First edition, first printing, large paper issue, one of 150 copies on verge d'Arches, this copy number 136, one of three copies of this issue recorded in Sylvia Beach's notebook as sent to James Whitall on 28 March 1922; this copy additionally signed and dated by Joyce on the half-title, "James Joyce, Paris, 27.vi.[1]929". Brought up as a Quaker in Philadelphia, James Whitall (1888-1954) came to England just before the war, cushioned by an independent income. Through John Cournos, whom he had known in the United States, he met the Aldingtons in August 1914. His literary tastes were fairly conservative, but he became particularly friendly with HD, whose lover Bryher was a key financial supporter of Sylvia Beach's bookshop. Whitall never completed any original poetry or prose, but came to make his career as a translator of French and later, for a period, as a reader at Heinemann's. He gives an affectionate account of his friendship with the Aldingtons in English Years (London: Jonathan Cape, 1936). No correspondence between him and Joyce survives, and the book was probably signed for him by Joyce through Sylvia Beach's agency. Though without bookplate, this copy was latterly in the library of John and Janet Jameson, who likely acquired this copy in the 1950s, after Whitall's death. Ulysses was published in imitation of the traditional three-tiered French format aimed at both connoisseurs and readers: 100 copies were printed on Dutch handmade paper and signed by Joyce; 150 copies were printed on heavier vergé d'Arches to create this large paper format; and the remaining 750 copies formed a small format trade issue, printed on less expensive vergé à barbes stock. With its generous margins, the large paper format is the most aesthetically pleasing of the three formats.