Ulysses by James Joyce
from Shakespeare and Company, Paris
Here is a volume with a further famous publishing history. Originally published in a fragile paperback binding with the Greek flag blue cover, it is now hard to find in good condition. Following an unsuccesful serialisation in the Little Review, Ulysses was published (in English) by Shakespeare and Company, the independent bookstore in Paris which had been established in 1919 by the American expatriate Sylvia Beach — and which became the gathering-place for such literary greats as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and of course James Joyce. A printer was found in Maurice Darantière of Dijon.
Indeed, the story of how Shakespeare and Company came to be the publisher of this work is shrouded in varying accounts and is not as clear as may first appear. Sylvia Beach’s own account can be found in her biographical volume “Shakespeare and Company” first appearing in 1959, this account has been amended in more recent times by Edward L. Bishop.
The publication process was not nearly as straightforward as had been anticipated, due in part to Joyce’s continual rewriting of the text and its complexity. The publication date was continually moved back and eventually it was first published in 1922 in a number of variant editions.
It was the 1926 edition, (it being the 8th printing overall, in effect the true second edition) that was the first printing of Ulysses to have the type entirely reset, to correct the legion of typographic errors in the hurried first printing that had carried through all the previous printings, thus basically making the 8th printing the 2nd Shakespeare and Company edition. The work was accomplished with Joyce’s participation, and became one of the key Shakespeare and Company printings, now early and desirable. All this making for a bibliographically interesting volume.
We feature two copies of the 1926 printing, one in the original blue paper wrappers and the other finely rebound in full scarlet leather with black title and two raised bands to spine, by J. Walters, in matched slipcase, the binding is most attractive. a striking binding to match the content.
