JOYCE, James. Ulysses. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head. 1936.
Tall 4to. Original green linen buckram, spine lettered in gilt, with Eric Gill's Homeric bow design stamped in gilt to front board, top edge gilt; pp. xiii, [3], 766; spine lightly sunned, as usual, some light wear to boards, otherwise an excellent copy.
First English edition printed in England, one of 900 copies on Japon vellum from a total edition of 1000 copies, Eric Gill's copy presented to him by the publishers, inscribed in his hand: "E.G. from the publishers/ Oct.3.1936" to ffep. This was the publication date. With Gill's bookplate to front pastedown. Inscribed by publisher "Presentation copy" to limitation page.
The run of this edition was limited to 1000 in keeping with that of the 1922 publication and contains valuable extra material, such as the first Joyce bibliography and appendices concerning the obscenity case that had kept the work from British printers. Gill was responsible for the design of the binding and the Homeric bow device for this lavish limited edition. Unsurprisingly for a book with such a chequered publication history and complicated text, there are a number of typographical differences compared to earlier editions; despite Joyce correcting the proofs while on holiday in Copenhagen in early 1936 a number of mistakes were later spotted, in the appendices especially. The bibliography, by Peter Pertzoff, had previously been submitted to Joyce and neither acknowledged nor returned. Pertzoff was apparently surprised to see it appear, inaccuracies and all, in this edition. Despite these anomalies and continued pressure from the censor, which had led Bodley Head to set up its own printing company to produce the work after their regular printer refused to do so, the presentation of this work was an artistic triumph, with the typography and design being overseen to a high standard by Allen Lane and Joyce's representative Paul Leon. Their commissioning of Gill, then the most famous typographer and book designer in the country, to work on the publication is a sign of the ambition and artistic standard of their project.
Slocum & Cahoon A23.
#2121917