James Joyce ULYSSES

A facsimile of the first edition published in Paris in 1922.
ORCHISES PRESS,Washigton
9 1/2" x 7 1/2" 735pp.

The private first edition was published in Paris on 2 February 1922 (Joyce's 40th birthday) by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company.

The Paris bookshop and lending library “Shakespeare and Company” offered hospitality and encouragement to aspiring writers and free thinkers of 1920’s Paris.
In July 1920, Sylvia Beach, proprietor of Shakespeare and Co., met Irish writer James Joyce at a dinner party hosted by French poet André Spire.
Soon after, Joyce joined her lending library. Joyce had been trying, unsuccessfully, to publish his complete manuscript of his masterpiece, Ulysses, in book form. Sylvia Beach, hearing Joyce’s discouragement firsthand asked, “Would you let Shakespeare and Company have the honor of bringing out your Ulysses?” to which Joyce replied “I Would!” entrusting his great work to, by her own account, an inexperienced and ‘funny little publisher.’ Thus, quite inauspiciously, and with the naivete of a fiesty woman with no experience in publishing, one of the most seminal works of the English language found its champion.

This facsimile edition is available from Orchises Press in single or multiple copies............................................. $85.