Many readers and critics have referred to Ulysses by http://www.themodernword.com/joyce/ as the greatest novel of the 20th century. In contrast, T.E. Lawrence once complained to the painter Eric Kennington, “Arnold Bennett … said the perfect word about Ulysses, when he swore that Joyce had made novel-reading a form of penal servitude. … Such dull stuff. … It goes on for ever.” The publishing history of Ulysses, however, is far from dull. It had one of the most complicated publishing histories in 20th century literature. The complications spanned continents and decades, and now in the 21st century the debate over a definitive edition continues.

When Joyce completed Dubliners in 1906, he considered including a short story called Ulysses (which he had not yet written). Instead, he decided Ulysses would be a short book and began writing it in 1914. Seven years and 732 pages later, Ulysses was completed. (Sort of. Joyce had a hard time letting go of manuscripts and was constantly revising and adding to Ulysses.) During those seven years, Joyce’s friends and fellow writers became restless. Ezra Pound, working as a foreign editor for the American magazine The Little Review, approached Joyce about serializing Ulysses in the magazine. Margaret Anderson, editor of The Little Review, wrote, “This is the most beautiful thing we’ll ever have. We’ll print it if it’s the last effort of our lives.” Chapter one appeared in the March 1918 issue.

In June 1919, the United States Post Office determined that The Little Review was in violation of Postal Laws and Regulations, due primarily to the “obscene” content of Joyce’s work, and refused to distribute certain issues of the magazine through the mail. But, Joyce continued to send his writing and The Little Review continued to publish it. By this time, Pound was already editing the content of Joyce’s writing, without his permission or knowledge. In 1920 Joyce complained in a letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver that “many passages are omitted and hopelessly mixed.” Due to the court case in 1921, The Little Review was forced to stop the serialization of Ulysses. A U.S. book deal for Ulysses would be impossible. In 1919, Weaver’s The Egoist magazine in London had serialized five episodes, but couldn’t find a printer to take on the entire work.

Beach and Joyce out front of Shakespeare and Co.

Beach and Joyce in the doorway of Shakespeare and Co.

While writing Ulysses, Joyce moved around Europe. He arrived in Paris in 1920 and soon became part of the literary crowd on the Left Bank, which included Sylvia Beach (an American). After working as a nurse during WWI, Beach, with her friend Adrienne Monnier, opened an English-language bookstore and lending library, Shakespeare and Company, in 1919. She was well aware of The Little Review trouble in the U.S. and in 1921 offered to publish the book, and Joyce accepted immediately. Beach wrote, “I thought it rash of him to entrust his Great Ulysses to such a funny little publisher. But he seemed delighted, and so was I . . . . Undeterred by lack of capital, experience, and all the other requisites of a publisher, I went right ahead with Ulysses.”

Beach and Joyce inside Shakespeare and Co.

Darantiere of Dijon agreed to print the work with the understanding that it would not be paid for until (and unless) money from the subscriptions arrived. Fortunately, each of the 1,000 copies sold, many purchased by Joyce’s fellow writers, with the notable exception of George Bernard Shaw. Both Beach and Pound had encouraged Shaw to subscribe, and after a lengthy exchange and numerous refusals, Shaw sent a postcard to Pound. “It was a reproduction from a painting of Christ’s entombment, with the four Marys in tears around Him. Underneath this picture, Shaw had written: ‘J.J. being put into his tomb by his editresses after the refusal of G.B.S. to subscribe to Ulysses.’”

Ulysses Proof with Joyce’s Corrections and Additions

The actual publication and typesetting of Ulysses turned out to be quite an ordeal. Virginia Woolf had estimated that it would take a professional two years to typeset Ulysses, but she did not take Joyce’s constant revisions into account. Beach had ordered the printer to supply Joyce with all the proofs he wanted. Joyce told Beach that “he had written a third of Ulysses on the proofs.” This delayed the intended publication date of August 1921. Beach received letters complaining about the delay, including one from T.E. Lawrence demanding his copy of Ulysses (which is now in the possession of the University of Texas at Austin, by the way).

That same year, Harriet Weaver announced the publication of an English edition, much to the chagrin of Sylvia Beach. Regardless, the first edition of Ulysses finally was published by Shakespeare and Co. in February 1922 on Joyce’s birthday. That same day, Joyce wrote to Beach, “I cannot let today pass without thanking you for all the trouble and worry you have given yourself about my book during the last year. All I can hope is that the result of its publication may be some satisfaction to you.”

Ulysses First Paris Edition

Edition Information with Joyce’s Signature

The English edition was published in October of the same year and sold at a significantly lower price, but was plagued by censorship difficulties from the start. The book was intercepted at customs, except for those few copies that were smuggled into the U.S. under the title, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

The U.S. ban was lifted in December 1933, the same week prohibition was repealed. As in the case of prohibition, the ban on Ulysses contributed to its significance and popularity. In 2002, a rare copy of Ulysses sold at Christie’s for $460,500, the highest price for a 20th century book.

Additional Reading/Viewing:

Nabokov’s Butterfly: And Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books – Rick Gekoski

Shakespeare and Company – Sylvia Beach

Syvlia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the
Twenties and Thirties – Noel Riley Fitch

Paris Was A Woman – documentary directed by Greta Schiller

Websites:

Digital Ulysses

Harvard’s Conservation of Ulysses Proofs

Haveth Versions Everywhere -or- Here Comes Everybody’s Edition(s) of Ulysses

James Joyce Image Gallery

Ulysses – Classic Text: Traditions and Interpretations