"THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK OF MODERN TIMES": A TRUE RARITY AND A CENTERPIECE OF ANY GREAT MODERN LITERATURE COLLECTION : FIRST EDITION OF ULYSSES, ONE OF ONLY 100 SIGNED BY JOYCE—AN EXCELLENT UNRESTORED COPY IN THE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS

JOYCE, James. Ulysses. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922. Quarto, original blue paper wrappers, uncut; early glassine.

First edition, number 91 of only 100 copies signed by Joyce and printed on Dutch handmade paper (out of a total edition of 1000 copies). An excellent unrestored copy in the fragile original wrappers.

After working seven years on Ulysses, Joyce, desperate to find a publisher, turned to Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company in Paris. "Within a month of the publication, the first printing of Ulysses was practically sold out, and within a year Joyce had become a well-known literary figure. Ulysses was explosive in its impact on the literary world of 1922… Then began the great game of smuggling the edition into countries where it was forbidden, especially England and the United States. The contraband article was transported across the seas and national borders in all sorts of cunning ways… So many copies left Sylvia Beach's bookshop for dissemination abroad in surreptitious ways that eight months after the initial printing of one thousand copies a second printing appeared" (de Grazia, 27). "The novel is universally hailed as the most influential work of modern times" (Grolier Joyce 69). The first printing consisted of 1000 copies, divided into three limitations. The first 100 copies were printed on fine handmade paper, numbered 1-100, and signed by Joyce—the present copy, number 91, is one of these, noted in Woolmer's 1996 census as having been originally sold to "Monsieur Quex" but unlocated at the time of the census. Copies 101-250 were also printed on handmade paper, though of a lesser grade than the first 100, and were not signed by Joyce. The final 750 copies were numbered 251-1000, printed on the least expensive stock of paper, and like the previous limitation, were not signed by Joyce. The present copy has been in private hands for more than 50 years. Slocum A17. Old dealer pencil price.

Interior clean and fine. Fragile original wrappers with a bit of minor edge-wear, three tiny spots to rear cover, and chipping to spine ends, but overall clean, fresh, and quite lovely, completely unrestored. A splendid copy of the very rare and desirable signed issue of Joyce's masterpiece.