University of Virginia Library

Harriet Weaver's Letters to James Joyce 1915-1920
by
John Firth [*]

Harriet Shaw Weaver, to whom T. S. Eliot dedicated his Selected Essays "in recognition of her services to English letters," was the daughter of a country physician who brought her up in the Quaker tradition. It is Quaker modesty and aversion to extravagance which characterizes her in this collection of correspondence, for she allowed herself few autobiographical utterances and few flights of praise for the works she so much admired and whose author she befriended for twenty-four years. Still, where the letters of her colleagues are overt revelations of personality, where we are rapt by Wyndham Lewis' zeal, Ezra Pound's fireworks, or James Joyce's sharp wit, Miss Weaver's letters are solid witness to Eliot's dedication. They are a record of her "services."

The hitherto unpublished collection of letters from the Cornell University Joyce Collection covers the time from April 22, 1915, to June 6, 1920, corresponding approximately to the period when Harriet Weaver began her connection with Joyce and extending up to the conclusion of the Egoist magazine's efforts to continue the serial publication of Ulysses. Miss Weaver became the editor of the Egoist in June, 1914, taking over from Dora Marsden who had begun the magazine in 1911 as a feminist review, the Freewoman. As the editor of the Egoist, it was Harriet Weaver's business to attend to the serial publication of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which Miss Marsden had agreed to publish after being introduced to the novel by Ezra Pound. Miss Weaver was faced with many difficulties in carrying out

the Egoist's commitment, the chief ones being the wartime breakdown of easy postal exchange between Joyce's various European locations and London, and the reluctance of English publishers and printers to handle outspoken novels in the wake of D. H. Lawrence's troubles with The Rainbow.

The letters contain the details of her problems with publishers and printers, their last minute refusals and their willfullness in editing Joyce's text, as well as the details of desperate measures nearly adopted to see Joyce's work in covers, such as Ezra Pound's plan to paste little slips of paper containing excised passages from Portrait into blank spaces in a proposed first edition. The problems in acquiring accurate texts for the Egoist, in providing American publishers with revised texts, and in getting them back herself, are also related in the letters. Miss Weaver writes of a variety of texts of Portrait, of the famous Dublin Holograph, of some made up from corrected copies of the Egoist, of a text sent to the American publisher John Marshall made up in part from the supposedly destroyed original typescript, and of corrections in the supposedly unrevised second English edition. The letters also contain a wealth of information about the sales of Portrait and about decisions concerning the price of the book. But the story of the struggle to publish Portrait is best told by the letters themselves, as is the story of the growing friendship between Harriet Weaver and James Joyce which led to her patronage of the author and continued on to the executorship of his literary estate.

The transcribing of these letters has been quite painless, for they are in good condition and Miss Weaver's handwriting presents few problems. She was not fond of abbreviations or private shorthand devices, and the few mannerisms of her hand are easily decipherable. No attempt has been made to edit Miss Weaver's occasional irregularities in punctuation or her infrequent misspellings. In addition to any self-justification for my handling this correspondence, I have three motives for including footnotes with the collection: (1) to explain the context of many of Miss Weaver's statements which are often direct replies to questions or remarks made by Joyce in previous letters, (2) to refer the reader to related letters, and (3) to supply biographical and circumstantial information about some of the many names, places, and events mentioned in these letters.

For economy's sake, I have not copied letterheads. They are as follows, my brackets indicating Miss Weaver's own handwriting. The letters, Cornell Joyce Collection numbers 1298 and 1299, are on business stationery headed "The Egoist, / Oakley House Bloomsbury Street, / London, W. C." On business stationery headed "The Egoist

/ (Published by the proprietors, The New Freewoman, Ltd.) / Oakley House, Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.," Miss Weaver wrote the letters, Cornell numbers 1300-1303, 1307, 1316, 1317, 1319, 1328, 1330, 1335, and 1336. Letters, Cornell numbers 1304-1306, 1308-1315, 1318, 1320, 1321, 1323-27, 1329, 1331-34, 1337-43, 1345-50, 1352-55, and 1357, are on Harriet Weaver's personal stationery headed "74 Gloucester Place, / [London,] W." Cornell numbers 1322 and 1358 are headed "The Vicarage, / Brighouse. / [Yorkshire]." Number 1351 is headed "[Arnewood / The Avenue / Totland Bay / Isle of Wight]." Letter number 1356 is a card headed [74 Gloucester Place, London, W. 1]; number 1359, also a card, is headed "[c/o Miss Wright / Frodsham / Warrington / England]."

I have omitted Miss Weaver's signatures as well as the letterheads. She signed all the correspondence "Harriet Weaver" except for the first two letters, numbers 1298, 1299, which she signed "Harriet Shaw Weaver," and the telegram which, of course, has no signature. The postscripts in letters, numbers 1298 and 1304, are initialed "H. S. W."

1298

Mr. Pound sent Mr. Grant Richards,[1] about a month ago I think, the part of the M.S. of your novel which has not yet been set up, together with a complete set of the numbers of "The Egoist" in which it has appeared up to date. I asked for the M.S. to be returned by May 20th. This would give Mr. Richards two months in which to consider it. If he should want it again it shall be returned to him after a further portion has been set up. | Yours sincerely

Would you care for any copies of "The Egoist"[2] to be sent to you to the address in Venice?[3] I could have one copy of all the back numbers from August sent if you like, & the current number each month from now — apart from the three you asked to have reserved for you.[4]

1299

Mr. Grant Richards returned, six or seven weeks ago, the portion of your MSS. that had not been set up in type, since when I have heard nothing further from him or Mr. Pound.

The novel will run on for another four numbers in "The Egoist" (i.e. till Nov. 1st) unless you would particularly like it to be finished sooner on account of publication in book form.[1] I am sending you copies of the last two numbers so that you may see how it is going on & what "The Egoist" is like now.

I am glad to hear you have reached Switzerland safely. | Yours sincerely

1300

It was because of Messrs. Partridge & Coopers' stupid censoring of your novel that we left them — that is, they had objected once of or [folls. del. of] twice to things in other parts of the paper, but their behaviour over your novel was the crowning offense. They struck out a passage on Aug. 1st of last year.[1] I could not help it. The rest was set up correctly until they came to the latter part of chapter four where as you have seen some sentences were omitted. I then submitted the whole of chapter five to them. They declined to set it up as it stood & so we left them.[2]

I am sorry to say that Messrs. Ballantyne are now acting in the same way. They refuse to print certain passages in the August instatment [sic]. I can but apologise to you.[3]

Mr. Pinker[4] has proofs containing all the deleted matter. I hope you will not have this annoyance when the novel comes to be printed in book form.

I am sending you the numbers you ask for. | With kind regards & apologies | Yours sincerely

1301

I thank you very much for your kind letter & good wishes. But it is rather we who owe you very warm thanks for having given us your novel & for having allowed it to make its first appearance in the Egoist, and it was the least I could do in return, & a pleasure to me, to try & protect the text.

The September number is late & does not go out till tomorrow, for Miss Marsden has again been unwell & was unable to finish her leader [?] up to time.[1]

If it would at all interest you to continue to see the Egoist I would gladly arrange to have a copy sent to you each month & in a printed wrapper.

With very grateful thanks from all our staff & kind regards | I am | Yours very sincerely

1302

I am much obliged to you for your kind promise of a copy of your book (which of course I shall be very glad to accept) "when and if" it is published. From this "if" I take it you must be having difficulites with publishers again & I am very sorry to hear it.[1] I hope indeed they will not all prove so stupid as to decline to bring out your novel. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1303

Yes, it was Mme. Ciolkowska[1] who suggested our trying to communicate with you when you were in Austria through her sister in Switzerland, & I feel sure she would gladly do what she could towards interesting any Paris publishers she knew on your behalf. Her present address is : —

9 Rue de l'Eperon, Paris 6 —

But I am afraid it is a bad time to hope to get a book published in Paris. Most publishers there seem either to be closed or to be undertaking very little ordinary work just now — very little besides war books I mean.

I have been wondering whether The Egoist could do it. Of course this would be nothing like so satisfactory as if the book were brought out by a proper book-publisher in London with his regular machinery for advertisement etc, but it might perhaps be just better than having it published in Paris.

If you like I will speak to Mr. Pinker & see what he thinks about it.[2] If he thought the scheme at all practicable I would then consult the other members of our staff & the directors of our small publishing company (The New Freewoman Ltd.) whose consent would have to be obtained.

We are bringing out a small pamphlet of poems by a French poet who has not been able to get them printed in Paris at this time.[3]

The December Egoist is late again. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1304

I have seen Mr. Pinker again & he still has hopes of getting some firm or other to bring out your novel. If he fails, we will do it. I have the necessary permissions. Meantime, as our journal, is after [folls. del. is] stringent economics, is now in a better financial position than it was when your novel was running through it, we think it only fair to make you some payment for the past serial rights, & we could now pay you £ 50. For safety, lest the letter should by any chance go wrong, I am writing from my flat & avoiding our official paper, so that the name of the sender may not appear. The order is made out in the name of the journal, not the company. And for safety also I am sending half the amount now, & when I hear that this has reached you I will send the other half. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

I had thought the Post Office here would have given me an order to enclose in this letter, but instead they have given me a receipt to keep, & they say that the Zürich Post Office will deliver you the money.

1305

Many thanks for your telegram which arrived at about midday on Saturday & for your letter[1] which reached me yesterday. The second instalment is being dispatched today in the same way. Please do not trouble to telegraph this time. As the first instalment reached you safely I will take it that the second will do so also. And please do not talk of kindness — it was a debt owing to you. I was rather worried by a letter from Mr. Pound in which he said you were in need of money. I felt wretched & ashamed to think we had had your wonderful book & made you no return whatever. The kindness is entirely yours in never having drawn attention to the fact.

It is a fortnight since I saw your agent & I have had no word from him since. He promised to write as soon as he had anything definite to say.

The December & January numbers of our paper which were posted to you under our printed wrapper have lately been returned to us from the Censor's Office. I find there is a new regulation making it necessary to obtain direct permission from the War Office before any periodicals can be sent from this country to neutral European countries, & we have not as yet obtained this permission. Apparently there are many formalities to be gone through.

May I send good wishes for your birthday? | And with kind regards | I am | Yours sincerely

1306

I am sorry to say our difficulties with printers are not over as I had thought. We began to go into details with Messrs. Richard Clay & Sons as to paper, type & so on, & then after a fortnight's delay they announced that they could not print the book without deletions. A third firm refused for the same reasons, & a fourth has been considering the matter all this week & I am not altogether hopeful of a favourable reply. Meanwhile time is getting on. A clerk at Oakley House whose services we are able to make use of in this matter of publishing & who, curiously enough, was previously in the employment of Messrs. Maunsel & Co. & remembers well the disputes over your book Dubliners, tells me that any book that is coming out in the spring should be out by April 1st. I am afraid we can hardly hope for this now, for no doubt you will want to see proofs (when at last we succeed in securing a printer) shall you not?[1] Perhaps you would also let me know whether you have any preference as to colour of binding. Shall it be like Dubliners or would you prefer a different colour?[2]

Mr. Pound suggests that I try & induce some American firm (he has given me three likely names) to take from us a number of unbound copies & be responsible for publication in America, & I will do this as soon as we have found a printer.

I have not seen the agreement that Mr. Pinker was to draw up.[3] This matter is also in abeyance until such time as a printer is forthcoming. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1307

This morning there has come a refusal from a seventh printer & I am becoming fairly hopeless. I am writing today to a firm[1] in Edinburgh who printed the Temple edition of Shakespeare. If they refuse I have very little hope of finding any firm willing to print without deletions. Possibly they are all frightened by the recent prosecution of Mr. D. H. Lawrence's book "The Rainbow." Mr. Pound wrote a week or so ago that he had written to you making the suggestion that if all printers refuse, the book should be printed with blank spaces where passages had been cut & the excisions afterwards manifolded by typewriter on good paper & pasted in.[2] Probably I shall hear from him as to whether or not you agree to this suggestion.[3]

Both Mr. Pound & Mr. Pinker tell me they do not consider publishers' seasons of any importance with a book of this kind.[4] But if there is much more delay I am afraid the clerk (working for another journal here) whose services we should borrow & who is the only person here who knows anything about book publishing, may have gone, as he is expecting to be called up for military service any day now.

Mr. Pinker has sent a draft agreement but if you do not mind I would rather not sign it just yet, for he has put in a clause by which "The Egoist" undertakes to print & publish your novel this year. I hope it may be done but owing to all these difficulties there is of course some doubt. I should have no hesitation in signing it if we had only you to deal with, but it is a different matter to be in Mr. Pinker's hands & he appoints himself your representative on all questions concerning the carrying out of the agreement. There does not appear to me to be any urgency as regards the signing of the thing, & as you were good enough to say you would agree to any terms (subject to a 10 percent discount to Mr. Pinker) I think you will probably raise no objection to the delay.

I had thought you might prefer to see proofs but as this is not the case we will not waste time by sending them & if Mr. Pound does not read them I will. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1308

Thank you for your letter of March 31st. The Edinburgh printer and another declined the book (making nine refusals). It is now with two others of whom I have better hopes. There should be replies from them next week. I will tell you at once if either is favourable. Two American publishers also have the complete text and have been asked to cable if they are willing to undertake publication & printing. Mr. Pound wrote strong letters to both.[1] I hope, therefore, it will not be necessary to fall back on Mr. Pound's plan of printing with blank spaces for typewritten insertions — to which you say you agree.

I am sending you the March & April numbers of "The Egoist." It was Miss Marsden's suggestion to talk of your book in the March number and she wrote that last section nearly as it stands. In fact the article should have been signed by her for, though it was my foundation, she worked it up.[2] | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1309

The two printers who had seemed more reasonable, after considerable delay finally decided declined [folls. del. decided], like the others, to print without deletions; as also did a twelth [sic]. And since then our own printers have said they would object even to printing with blank spaces.

But you will have heard from Mr. Pound than [sic] an American publisher, a Mr. John Marshall of New York, is willing to undertake not only the American publication but also will print the book entire. He said he had written also to me but no letter from him has reached me as yet. I am writing to him today as to his sending us copies for publication here. I am afraid it will be a few months before the book is actually out, at least in England, but it will be a relief to you that the matter is at last settled — for I think we may take it that it is.

Possibly you may have received a letter from a Mr. Bryceson Treharne[1] (whose handwriting is almost illegible). He wrote a short time ago to ask if I could put him in touch with four people (of whom you were one) some of whose poems he had set to music. So I sent him the addresses. I know very little about him. He is mentioned by Mr. Leigh Henry in the extracts from his letters to his wife published in the December "Egoist."[2] He was sent home from Ruhleben in December owing to ill health, and called at Oakley House a little time ago, and it is since then that he wrote for the

addresses. Apparently he is a professional composer. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1310

Your letter reached me last night and I thank you for it. I have still the typescript of chapter V and I am sending this off today to Mr. Marshall asking him to let his printers set up from this exactly as it stands, without adding commas or capitals. As I was stupid enough to destroy the rest of the typescript it would be a help if you would kindly do what you suggest and weed out errors in chapters III & IV. If you will then send them to me (here, please, as I am not at Oakley House every day) I will insert the passages deleted by our printers and forward them on to Mr. Marshall on the chance that it is not too late for his printers to set up from them. I will despatch to you today cuttings[1] containing chapters I & II and perhaps you will correct these also and let me have them back. I shall ask Mr. Marshall either to send me proofs or have them corrected according to the corrected text. The arrangement is that as he is willing to print without deletions he shall print and publish in America and send us copies in sheets to be bound & published in London — at least I hope this arrangement will be carried through but I have not yet had a letter from him. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1311

Many thanks for sending so quickly the corrections for the third and fourth chapters of your novel and for making them out so clearly. I am sorry that the cuttings of chapters I & II had not reached you when you wrote. They had to be handed in at the censor's office with an explanation as to what they were and left for him to look through. It therefore did not seem possible to send them by express post but perhaps it could have been done.

Yes, it was your unabridged text that Mr. Marshall agreed to publish. He has it all but I thought it safer to add the deleted passages also to the text containing your corrections lest they should be forgotten. I have also sent him the slip you enclosed.

We have suggested to him that the names of both publishers should appear in both the American and English editions. Do you agree to this? I enquired and found that, unfortunately, it will be necessary for the name of our publishing company (the New Freewoman Ltd.) to appear on the

title page because "The Egoist" is not a legal entity, but the name of the company will be printed in small type as publishing for "The Egoist" London (larger type). | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1312

Many thanks for returning the cuttings with your corrections. I sent them on at once to Mr. Marshall. It is almost a month since I first wrote to him but I have had no letter from him as yet. The American posts to this country have been very irregular for some time past. I will write to you as soon a I hear from him.

The May and June numbers of "The Egoist" were dispatched to you last week and with them, from Mr. Pound, a copy of the American review "Drama" containing an article by him on your play.[1] | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1313

I am still without a letter from Mr. Marshall but I had a letter today from another New York publisher, Mr. Huebsch.[1] I showed it to Mr. Pinker this afternoon and he said he would write to you on the matter at once. Mr. Huebsch has read the complete text of your novel (which was sent on to him by Mr. Byrne Hackett[2] of the Yale University Press) and he writes that he would very much like to publish it and would have it printed without any deletions.

I have written today to tell him that you have already accepted the offer of another New York publisher, but that should these negotiations fall through for any reason he should at once be informed and Mr. Pinker would go into the matter with him. Though his offer is not so good as Mr. Marshall's I imagine his firm has a better standing. He said he had already been in correspondence with you & Mr. Pinker. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1314

Mr. Pound writes that his negotiations with Mr. Heinemann[1] for the publication of your novel have fallen through and he asks me to go on with the arrangements for its publication by "The Egoist" through Mr. Huebsch. I am cabling to Mr. Huebsch ordering copies for "The Egoist" and am writing to him in greater detail.[2] I wrote some weeks ago to ask Mr. John Marshall to hand on to him the text containing your corrections, and to Mr. Huebsch to expect it and to instruct his printers to make no alterations in it.

I hope that nothing will go wrong now and that the book will really appear in print at last. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1315

I received yesterday a letter from Mr. Huebsch (dated August 25th)[1] in which he said that he was waiting to hear from your agent before having the book set up: he was proposing some amendments in the contract that had been sent to him by your agent and if the latter accepted these and cabled to that effect he would have the printing put in hand at once. He asked if I would see Mr. Pinker and urge him to give the matter immediate attention. I cabled therefore and learnt that he had cabled at once on receiving Mr. Huebsch's letter yesterday morning, accepting the amendments.[2]

Unfortunately, Mr. Huebsch had not, when he wrote on August 25th, received from Mr. Marshall the corrected copy of the novel. He had just been told that Mr. Marshall had gone to Quebec and he was writing to him that day. As it seemed to me doubtful whether he would succeed in getting hold of the thing I decided to send out the corrections afresh and I posted to him last night cuttings containing the corrections you sent for chapters III & IV. Today I have made corrections in the other chapters and have dispatched these also to him. I think I have made most of the corrections you would wish to have but in case you should like to make them again yourself I am sending to you today by express post cuttings of chapters I, II, and also V. Mr. Huebsch is anxious to hurry the affair on in order to include the book in his autumn list but your corrections of these chapters would no doubt reach him in time for the reader to use them when correcting the proofs.

Many thanks for your letter. It pleased me greatly that you should have remembered my birthday: please accept my best thanks for your very kind wishes. | Yours sincerely

1316

I enclose cuttings of chapters I, II & V of your novel. It might save a little time if you were to send them, when corrected, direct to the publisher — | Mr. B. W. Huebsch | 225 Fifth Avenue | New York

I cannot fill in the deleted sentences because Mr. Heinemann has not yet returned the copy I sent him to read, but I have asked Mr. Huebsch

to be sure to see that they are all inserted: he has them all in his uncorrected copy. I have written to you by this post explaining why the corrections have to be made again. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1317

I wrote to you a week ago to tell you of the safe arrival of your corrections of the three chapters of your novel but the letter has just been returned to me. I sent on the corrections at once to the American publisher. He has not mentioned to me any particular date on which he hopes to publish the book nor has he said how soon he will be able to send sheets over here. As soon as there is any more definite news from him I will write to you.

I quite agree with you that it might be useful to insert in the copies that go out for review slips containing some extracts from the press notices of your book Dubliners.[1] Your agent has now sent me these and I will make a selection unless you would prefer to do it yourself. The ten copies that you wish to buy could be sent out when the review copies go or a few days earlier if you would prefer it. Perhaps you will let me know later on whether they should be sent to Mr. Pound: otherwise they could easily be sent out from here if you would let me have the addresses later: in this case I suppose you would send notes or slips to be enclosed.

I hope you are able to make some progress with your new book. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1318

I thank you for your letter of the 18th. I had a letter yesterday from the New York publisher acknowledging the receipt of your corrections of chapters I, II & V of your novel. He writes that he will do his very best to get the book out before the end of the year but is not quite certain of being able to manage it. This being the case I am afraid it can hardly be ready for publication here before the early part of next year. I had a letter also from Mr. Byrne Hackett to whom Mr. Pound wrote originally and who brought your book to the notice of Mr. Huebsch. He writes that he considers Mr. Heubsch the best of the younger American publishers and by best he means the most imaginative honourable and resourceful. I gather that Mr. Hackett keeps a bookshop in connexion with the Yale University Press. He says that in his capacity of bookseller he will do all in his power for the success of the book and he also feels sure that his brother,[1] who is literary editor of the New York New Republic, will review the book "at length and with discrimination." This should be a help for I think the journal has a large circulation. Mr. Hackett asks to be remembered to you though he thinks it quite likely that you will have no recollection of him.

He says he was at Clongowes when you were but was an altogether obscure member of "first junior" at that time. He was unhappy at the school.[2] | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1319

I find this letter[1] here today from Mr. Huebsch: I am writing to tell him that I am referring it to you. Shall I send a copy of "Chamber Music"?

Your agent has already sent him a copy of the extracts from the press notices of your book "Dubliners". | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1320

I am afraid I am not an imaginative enterprising and resourceful publisher but merely imitative. The request of the American publisher has suggested to me that it would be useful to print in The Egoist before the publication of your novel an article on you which perhaps Mr. Pound would be good enough to write.[1] If you agree to this I will ask him. Would you be willing for it to be accompanied by a woodcut of yourself which I would get the young Norwegian, Mr. Kristoin,[2] to do if you could supply a photograph? Perhaps Mr. Pound has one?

I send this by express post in order that you may have the two suggestions together. Please reply to me to | c/o Miss Wright | Frodsham | near Warrington | where I go on Thursday next week. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1321

Your letter[1] was forwarded and reached me yesterday. I am concerned to hear of your illness and that you are suffering from a nervous breakdown. When you write again will you please tell me how you are. I shall hope to hear that you are feeling better and that you have had no more collapses.

I had a letter (dated October 17th) from the American publisher saying that your book was then in the hands of the printers and that he quite hoped to be able to bring it out this season, by which I take him to mean before the end of the year. I have written to tell him that you wish it to

bear the date 1916 in any case. On October 24th I had a letter from him which I forwarded to you by express post that day and I wrote to you also by express post the following day: I am surprised that the letters had not reached you when you wrote on October 30th. If Mr. Huebsch's letter does not reach you I must repeat to you what he said. Perhaps I had better do so now to save delay. He said he would like to have autobiographical details about you for use in the press both before and after the publication of your novel and that he would be glad to have a photograph of you for the same purpose. I wrote to him that I was referring the letter to you. Now that you are ill I expect you will not want to be troubled with giving him the information for which he asks. He also asked to see a copy of your book Chamber Music with a view to an American edition and, since I was coming away before I could hear from you, I arranged for one to be sent to him and I sent him a message from Mr. Elkin Matthews[2] as to the terms on which he would be willing to dispose of the American copyright. I also told him that he ought to communicate also with your agent if he decides he would like to publish the book.

I shall be back in London before I can hear from you after you receive this par [?]. If you write please send a postcard only. if you are still unwell. | With many kind regards | Yours sincerely

1322

Thanks for your letter with the enclosures for Mr. Huebsch and also for the two sets of photographs.[1] I forwarded the enclosures and one set of photographs and gave him your message. I am sorry that the copy of "The Egoist" of January 15.1914 cannot be sent until the December number goes out for we have now to send the American copies also through an agent having a special permit and he wishes to be troubled as few times as possible.

There are a good many more readers (both English & American) since your novel finished in "The Egoist": that is why I thought an article by Mr. Pound would be useful. I had a letter[2] from him yesterday suggesting that, for variety's sake, I should ask Mr. Edward Marsh to write it but I hope that he (Mr. Marsh) and some other writers (including Mr. H. G. Wells and Mr. George Moore) may be willing to write reviews in other papers when the book appears. I shall try and see Mr. Pound about this after I return to London next week.

I read your slips for Mr. Huebsch and I thank you for mentioning "The Egoist" and for your kind reference to me.[3]

I am glad to hear from Mr. Pound that you were rather better and had had no more collapses. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1323

The two larger photographs have reached me safely. I sent the first of them straight on to New York without letting Mr. Kristian see it because he is a very dilatory person and would have been very slow in returning it. Also it had not occurred to me that they would not both be alike. He will have plenty of time as the article will not go in before January (or possibly February if it should turn out to be impossible for the book to be ready for publication here in January).

I have written to ask Mr. Huebsch if he will cable as soon as ever the book is actually out in New York and I will telegraph to you immediately I get the news. I will also let you know as soon as the sheets[1] arrive here.

Mr. Pound thinks that Mr. H. G. Wells and Mr. William Archer may very likely be willing to write special reviews (the former perhaps in The Nation) if I ask them nearer the time of the publication of the book. And he will write later to Mr. Clutton Brock[2] who has charge of The Times reviewing staff. There are also two or three others whom we hope to get hold of. But Mr. Wells will be the most useful, I think, if he can be prevailed upon to do it.

I am very glad to hear that you are improving and hope the cure you are making will be successful. | With very kind regards | Yours sincerely

1324

Many thanks for your kind letter. A cable from Mr. Huebsch arrived yesterday and I hope you will have received yesterday or today my telegram of yesterday telling you that your book has appeared in New York. Today I received a letter from Mr. Huebsch, written on December 20th, saying that he had just shipped sheets to England. I suppose they will be a few weeks on their journey and I am afraid it will be nearly a month after their arrival before they can be bound and ready for publication here. The slips in the December Egoist were sent to the American subscribers only. Mr. Huebsch has received all three photographs and thanks you for them.

I hope that this year 1917 will bring success to your book both in America and the United Kingdom. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1325

I telegraphed to you on the 22nd to tell you that the sheets from America had arrived that day. I am glad to say that the binders will be rather quicker over their work than I had expected and have promised to deliver some of the books in a fortnight's time. For safety, however, we are announcing the 15th as the date of publication. The twelve presentation copies that you wish sent out shall go out the first of all, before the review copies. I will send you the three copies for which you ask: I am very much obliged to you for the one you are going to be so kind as to give me and to write in. If you will accept it from me I would like to give you your own copy, apart from the ten that are yours by arrangement. This will leave four for your account.

The nominal published price is 6/— but the book will be obtainable at shops for 5/—. The trade price for single or for a few copies will be 4/3; for a dozen or more 3/9. When the book is out I will inquire the postage rate per dozen to Switzerland. I am glad to hear you hope to be able to dispose of a few dozen in Zurich.

I have written to ask Mr. Huebsch to send me copies of the American press notices unless he has already arranged to send them to your agent.

Please accept my best wishes for your birthday and many kind regards | Yours sincerely

1326

Many thanks for your telegram and card. The books came from the binders yesterday afternoon and your twelve presentation copies were sent off at once. The review copies for London papers will be delivered by hand tomorrow morning: those for post went off this afternoon. I will send you the three copies soon but I find they will have to go through an agent having a permit. The book rate to Switzerland is fourpence per pound; not more than four pounds can be sent in one package and there is no reduction in the rate for weights above a pound. As each book, with wrappings, weighs just a pound this works out at fourpence a copy for whatever numbers are sent. It would not be fair for you to pay the whole of this & if you buy a few dozen copies, we should halve it at any rate. I am told now that the trade price for a dozen copies should be 3/6 per copy and for smaller numbers 4/— per copy and that to every dozen copies one must be added free.

Mr. Pound has secured two or three promises of reviews and I have one or two. Mr. H. G. Wells declines to write a review himself — he has not the time he says — but promises to speak about the book to the editor of the Nation (formerly the Speaker). I expect you would like to see all the notices in full would you not? | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1327

Mr. Huebsch sent me the enclosed, asking me to forward it to you. I wonder whether you have received two letters from me — one of them written towards the end of January and sent to your last address; the other written nearly three weeks ago and sent by express post to your new address.[1] I wrote the latter, I remember, on the 7th, the day the first review copies of your book were posted. Your twelve presentation copies had been sent out the day before. One of these, by the way, has since been returned, marked "gone away". It was the one sent to Mr. Healy at the address you gave (6 Saint Lawrence Road, Clontarf, Dublin).[2]

The book has been on sale now for a fortnight and tradespeople have begun to send for copies though I think no reviews have appeared as yet in London papers — nothing beyond the bare announcement of publication.

You asked me to tell you the prices of the book and I did so but will repeat in case you have not had the letters. Though the nominal published price is 6/— the real net price is 5/—. The trade price is 4/— and for orders of a dozen copies, 3/6 per copy with one extra copy added free (thirteen for the price of twelve). The postal rates to Switzerland come to fourpence a copy and there is no reduction in the rate whatever numbers are sent. If you buy a few dozen I do not think you should pay the postage: it ought to be a publication expense.

You asked me also whether Mr. Huebsch had arranged to send me copies of the American press notices. I wrote to ask him to do so unless he had already arranged to send them to your agent. In my earlier letter I said I would send you the three copies for which you asked and I thanked you for your kindness in saying that one of them was for me and that you wanted to write a few words in this one as well as in the one for Mr. Pound. I asked whether you would accept your own copy from me, apart from the ten that you receive by agreement. Though I have not heard from you I shall venture to send it now without waiting any longer. I have wondered whether you were ill again or whether I had annoyed you or whether perhaps the letters did not reach you.[3] In the one I wrote more than a month ago I sent my best wishes for your birthday and am sorry if the message did not reach you on the day. It was very good of you to telegraph twice in acknowledgement of my telegrams. | With many thanks and kind regards | Yours sincerely

1328

Mr. Wells has been better than his word and after all has himself written an appreciative review of your book in The Nation.[1] I enclose a cutting. I have written to thank him.

A few short notices have come in. When a number more have come I will have them copied and will send them to you. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1329

You will see from the enclosed cutting that The Times Literary Supplement has given a special review in the body of the paper, not in the ordinary novel review column.[1] This should be a great help to the sales. Mr. Pound had written to Mr. Clutton Brock, who writes their leading articles, and got him to ask the editor to let him have the book to review. I enclose copies of five short reviews that have come in. I will send others when they come.

I received yesterday M. Battara's letter, dated February 17th. I am very sorry to hear that you have been ill again and hope you are rather better by this time and that you will get well soon.

I sent thirteen copies of your book yesterday to an agent with directions for them to be forwarded to you as soon as possible. I had sent them three copies on Monday. I hope they will all reach you safely. Please do not be in any hurry about sending the money for them. | With many kind regards | Yours sincerely

1330

I enclose three more press notices of your book, a letter from Mr. Clutton Brock which Mr. Pound thought you might like to see and a post card addressed to you. The sales are making a good start I think. Ninety seven copies of the book were ordered last week (including your dozen) and already this week nearly two hundred have been ordered — the greater number of them by a wholesale firm which distributes books all over the country. Two Dublin shops have sent for copies.

I hope you are a good deal better now and that you are not having more of the unpleasant attacks that you had in the autumn. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1331

Many thanks for your letter and for the book and for the money order for £2.6.4 for which I enclose receipt. I enclose a few more press notices, all that have come in up to date. "The Future" is a new journal which I have only just seen. No press cutting was sent to me. I think they will review your book in their April number: I have given them a copy today.[1]

The sales have dropped off this week. If they do not pick up again soon we shall advertise in one or two of the most likely papers. We are at a disadvantage of course, in having no agents or travellers, in fact no business staff at all. So far, the none [folls. del. the] of the libraries[2] have taken the book except "The Times" Book Club. which has had a dozen copies.

I am very sorry to hear that you have had such a dangerous illness of the eyes. I hope they are quite out of danger now and that the attacks will not return. I suppose that ever since you were taken ill in the autumn you have been able to work very little at the book you are writing. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

Please note the addition of the number 1 to my address.

1332

Thanks for your letter of the 13th. A second dozen books were dispatched to you early in the week and I hope will reach you safely. I received the enclosed letter from Mr. Huebsch at the beginning of this week but the original letter he speaks of, with the enclosures, has not yet come. Perhaps it will come by next week's mail; if it does I will send on the reviews to you. If it does not arrive at all I will ask Mr. Huebsch to send fresh copies. I have received no press notices this week. Most of the papers are devoting very little space to book reviews now and I fancy that many of them judge a book by the publisher rather than by its contents and scarcely trouble to look at a book that is not published by a well known firm. It will have to make its way gradually now I expect.

I hope that you are better this week and your eyes are out of danger. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1333

I enclose the press notices spoken of by Mr. Huebsch in the letter that I sent to you. I kept them a few days to have them copied. The Springfield Union review, though shorter than some, seems to me to be the best on the whole that has appeared so far.

The sales have improved a little but not very much and I am afraid that the words on the back page of the April Egoist saying that the first

edition is nearly exhausted are an exaggeration. Miss Marsden suggested the back page advertisement and wrote the short introduction.[1] I am sending copies to a number of lapsed subscribers. I am glad to hear that you are better. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1334

I enclose five notices of your book. Mr. Huebsch has sent me no more notices but I have looked up the New Republic in a library and I see that the review by Mr. Wells is the one that appeared in the Nation. It is classed under "articles of general interest." There was also a long review in that paper on March 3rd by Mr. Francis Hackett.[1] I am sending for a copy. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1335

Your card of the 9th reached me two days ago and I am making enquiries why the eight American reviews were stopped and what has become of them. If I do not succeed in obtaining the originals I will send you typewritten copies. It is fortunate that I had them made. Mr. Pound tells me he is sending you the review by Mr. Francis Hackett in the New Republic and one by Mr. John Quinn[1] in Vanity Fair.

I sent you 4 or 5 English press notices early in the week and enclose now 3 from Irish papers. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1336

I enclose a letter which I am asked to forward to you and a review of your novel by the New Witness. A reviewer at last speaks of the beauty of the book.

In a few days time I will send you copies of the American reviews that did not reach you. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1337

The eight American reviews of your novel that were removed from my letter of April 4th cannot be traced at the censor's office and appear to have been destroyed. It seems that it is not permissible to send American press cuttings from this country to a neutral country: the censor has, however, been kind enough to say that he will allow the enclosed type-written copies of the missing eight American reviews to go through to you. I have written to ask Mr. Huebsch to send the American reviews direct to you in future. He has sent me none but these eight.

The censor was surprised to hear that the English press notices sent by me had reached you and said that it is not really permissible to send English newspaper cuttings except through a press cutting agency. I have therefore arranged with Messrs Durrant's press cutting agency that they will send you duplicate cuttings of any further notices that appear. From time to time I will send you a list of what ought to reach you: please let me know if any of them do not arrive. I think I have sent you already a total of twenty four notices including one from an American paper. I suppose there will not be very many more.

I hope your eyes are quite cured now. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1338

Many thanks for your letter[1] of April 22nd and for the money order for £2.6.4 for the second dozen copies of your novel. I enclose a receipt. I enclose also a copy of a notice that has appeared in the English Review [2] — I do not think the press cutting agency sends cuttings from that paper. The English Review wrote and asked for a copy of the book (I had not sent them one as they do very little reviewing). Mr. Ernest Boyd[3] wrote and asked for a copy, so did the Sphere, so also about half a dozen other papers, including an English Church illustrated paper! I think this last paper cannot have ventured to print a review.[4] The only notice I have received from the press cutting agency since I asked them to send duplicates to you is one of two lines from the Daily Chronicle.

The sales continue to be rather slow. 41 copies were sold in April and 11 in the first 11 days of this month. The total number sold up to date is 435 (336 of these have been paid for, 99 not yet paid for). I am hoping to have soon the help of someone who has been with a large publisher and who would know how to make use of the reviews and how to push the book. There are about 240 copies left and, in the hope of another edition being wanted, I have written to Mr. Huebsch about this. I have sent him a few corrections to be made before another edition (English or American) is printed. The printers seem not to have understood that in most places where you crossed out hyphens you meant the words to be joined together and not separated as they have been. Except for this the text, as corrected, seems to have been very carefully set up.

I was sorry to hear from Mr. Pound that you had to have an operation after all.[5] I hope it went off quite successfully and that you will not have more trouble with your eyes. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1339

A little time ago Mr. Pound mentioned that you had an attack of glaucoma and later that you had written him a card. I had never heard of glaucoma and have learnt only lately what a very serious and dangerous disease it is. If it would not hurt you to send me a card I would like to know how you are now and what the prospects are.

I enclose three notices from papers that had written for your book. The press cutting agency should send you a cutting from The Challenge, an English church paper.

I had a letter yesterday from Mr. Huebsch in which he said he had just received through Mr. Pinker a list of corrections made by you for the second edition of your book. I am glad you were able to make them yourself. I had thought it might hurt your eyes. Mr. Huebsch said that unfortunately they were too late for the second American edition but they can be used for a second English edition if it is wanted — as I think it will be. Sixty eight copies of the book have been ordered this month: an improvement on last month. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1340

Many thanks for your letter. I am glad to hear that you are rather better even though the progress is very slow and apparently will continue so. I hope you will not have a relapse again.

Ever since August 1914 Mr. Leigh Henry, for whose address you ask, has been a prisoner of war (civilian) in Germany. His address when he last wrote — several months ago — was | Baracke 3, Box 10 | Engländerlager Ruhleben | Germany. | I think it would be useful to have as many foreign notices as possible. I will send review copies to the papers you suggest: I am trying to find out who is the London correspondent of the Milan paper

you mention. Mme Ciolkowska put a short notice in a French daily paper L'Intransigeant (I asked her to send you a copy) and the editor of that paper, Mr. Fernando Divoni, asked for a review copy and will, I hope, write a longer notice. Mr. de Bosschère[1] is too busy to write now, being very much occupied with some contract work. I hope, however, that we shall get a review in the Mercure de France. Mr. Pound met their London correspondent, Mr. Davray,[2] a day or two ago and he promised to review the book — but Mr. Pound says his promises are not entirely to be replied [sic] upon. Mr. Cournos,[3] who writes occasionally for the Egoist, sent a review to a Russian paper.

It is good of you to give you permission for the remaining copies of the book to be sold to the American publisher if the sales become unprofitable. But I hope there will be no necessity for this. In fact we are arranging to bring out another edition in September when someone who has been with a large publisher is coming to us and should be able to push the sales. Owing to recent restrictions on the import of books the new edition is to be printed in England. (I have found a printer brave enough to do it — supported by the reviews.) I wrote to the American publisher for a copy of the corrections you sent him and hope they will arrive in a week or two. | With many kind regards | Yours sincerely

1341

I enclose a letter addressed to you c/o The Egoist. Many thanks for your letter[1] and suggestions for foreign reviews of your novel. I sent copies (with copies of the May & June Egoist) to the two Geneva papers you spoke of and to Professor Olivieri[2] and Mr. Mario Borsa[3] — with letters also to the two last — though whether diplomatic or not I am not sure. It is a little difficult for the publisher also to do these things.[4] After receiving your previous letter I wrote to Mr. John Jaffé but have had no reply. I have not succeeded in tracing the London correspondent of the Corriere della Sera (Milan). The Italian press agency here does not know of anyone writing under the pseudonym of Giovanni Emanuel but said that a Mr. Canagna, who was the London correspondent of the paper, has left London and they do not know his address. Reuter's agency could tell me nothing. The Russian paper to which Mr. Cournos sent a review was the Apollon (Petrograd). He does not know on what date it appeared.

I got your corrections from your agent and the printers now have the book in hand. I will send you a complete proof as soon as they come. Nine more copies of the book (completing the third dozen) were sent off to you two days ago.

I hope you have recovered from the attack of tonsilitis and that your eyes are better too. You are indeed unfortunate in being troubled with such a number of illnesses: they seem to have a conspiracy not to let you alone. I suppose there are not many people who have the good fortune to be always well like me. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1342

Your letter of the 18th (the one that was not lost by your absentminded daughter)[1] was rather slow in the post and as I have been away for a few days it was delayed still longer and I did not get it till last night. It is very good of you to suggest an alteration in the contract in our favour and to say that you agree in advance to anything I may propose. But as the book is to be charged at 6/— net — most of the 6/— novels published in London now are to be charged at 6/— net I am told — the increased expense with the English printing should be met in this way unless the increased price proves a hindrance to the sales. You speak of trying to get some wholesale bookseller in Zurich to take copies on sale. The export price will be 4/6; or 4/3 if a dozen are ordered.

I am very glad to hear that your play Exiles is is to [folls. del. is] be published in the autumn and wish it good success. It is pleasing to hear that you would rather it had been published by the Egoist. Your proposal that the leaflet with the press notices of your novel be inserted in the copies for sale as well as in the review copies seems to me good and I hope Mr. Richards will agree. I am uncertain whether the regulation against the import of books in quantity applies to all printed matter. I will inquire at the general post office here but probably shall not have a reply for some days.[2]

I will send a copy of your novel to Dr. Pouptis at 62 Oxford Street and must get a copy of his paper with the review which I shall have to find someone to construe.[3] I have now had a letter from Mr. Jaffé who advises that a copy be sent to the Semaine Litteraire, Lausanne, as well as to the Journal de Génève and he says that he mentioned this paper to you. Are there, I wonder, the two papers of the same name or is it a case of absentmindedness on your part or on his? You had told me the Semaine Litteraire, Geneva and I sent the copy there. I shall not send one to Lausanne until I hear from you again on the matter.

If I were to send out a copy of your novel would you be willing to sign it for the bookseller[4] a letter from whom I enclose? Apparently it is for

himself. I had told him that if you did it you would probably want to know the name of his customer and might require a fee: I did not know. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1343

I have found out that the importation of copies of the extracts from the press notices of your novel will be permitted if they come through the post in parcels weighing not more than 7 lbs each. I think it would be useful if the Egoist were to have an independent supply of 1000 for insertion in copies of the paper going to new people and in copies of Mr. Eliot's small book Prufrock [1] and in Mr. Pound's Dialogues of Fontenelle which are being reprinted. If you can kindly arrange this please deduct the cost and postage from the amount of the third dozen copies of your novel.

I am sorry to say a catastrophe has occurred which will cause considerable delay in the appearance of the second English edition of the book. The text is already set up (I think) but the manager who had undertaken the work has gone off on military service and his successor declines to produce the book without deletions. I shall try one or two other firms but feel rather hopeless of success. Failing an English printer we shall have to apply to the Board of Trade for permission to import sheets from America. As the first edition will soon be exhausted I think perhaps it would be better not to try for more reviews while we are unable to supply copies that might be ordered as a result. I had a card from Mr. Viderovich[2] (I think it must be he though the signature is not quite clear) from via Carona 221, Rome, saying that he will glad to review the book on the first opportunity. Dr. Olivero [sic] is keenly interested in all works of art based on lofty and pure ideals and trying to express with a beautiful style the refined psychology of our time. If your novel corresponds to these aesthetic principles he will be delighted to review it in one of the best Italian periodicals. I wonder whether you will come up to his test! | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1344

Telegram | 8/9 1917 | nora joyce seefeldstrasse | 73, zuerich= | call cooks office for ten pounds advance from egoist=

1345

Many thanks for your kind message for my birthday written from the hospital and please thank Mrs. Joyce for me for her letter received this morning.[1] I am glad to know from it that you are improving after the operation though only slowly. I had imagined you were so much better that an operation would be avoided and was very sorry to hear of this new collapse.

Mr. Pound told me you had written that your book Ulysses was likely to be finished in January and that you suggested its appearance as a serial in the Egoist and Little Review simultaneously. We should be very glad indeed to have it and the Egoist could pay you fifty pounds — half of it now and half of it in six months time if that you [sic] suit you. Mr. Pound suggested that I should telegraph a part of the first instalment and make it payable to Mrs Joyce in case you should still be in hospital. Two days ago therefore I telegraphed ten pounds through Cook's agency and at the same time I telegraphed to Mrs Joyce to call at their Zurich office. I hope both telegrams got through. Today I am sending with this letter a draft for fifteen pounds (328.50 francs) payable in the same way on the personal application of Mrs Joyce. I think the publication of the book as a serial would give the Egoist the right of publication later in book form but that of course could be settled entirely as you might wish at the time. I hope you would understand that if by any unfortunate chance the printers should insist on making any deletions we should be powerless to do anything. I have sufficient experience now of London printers to feel convinced it would be useless to try a change of firm. I think I have found a country printer[2] willing to print the second edition of your novel — a Southport firm which printed the Egoist till the publication was transferred to London in July 1914. I will let you know when, or if, the matter seems certain — as certain, that is, as it is possible to feel after the last disappointment. If they fail and we have to apply to the Board of Trade for permission to import sheets from America I will take your advice and ask the help of Mr. Edward Marsh of the Colonial Office.

With kind regards and hoping to hear that the result of the operation is quite satisfactory | Yours sincerely

1346

The printers I spoke of are setting up your novel and I think it very unlikely that the same disaster will occur again for they yielded to persuasion and made no deletions during the year in which they printed the New Freewoman and Egoist. They say that the proofs will be ready in the third of or [folls. del. of] fourth week in October. Will you be satisfied if I read them through very carefully using your corrections for reference? This would save some weeks' delay. Also the nearer it gets to Christmas the busier the binders will be. I am afraid there would be difficulties in the way of having a small number printed and bound first.

Mr. Symons[1] writes that he received no letter from you but got the book which he "admires greatly". I expect it was because you had not the correct address for the book was returned in the first instance by the post office. I looked out [sic] the address in a directory and sent it again. The right address is Island Cottage, Wittersham, Kent.

I wrote some weeks ago to the bookseller Ebell asking him if he was willing to take the books at the increased price and I suggested sending him as a start seven (which are charged at the price of six and a half). He has not replied but I will reserve seven a little while longer though there are only nine other copies left and these have already been ordered by a shop that has had a large number of copies "on sale or return" and has disposed of them all. The bookseller, Mr. Frank Albert, now asks if you will sign your other two books copies of which he is getting and he offers a fee of half a guinea for the two. As you signed your novel I will send these two when they come though perhaps you will not be fit to sign them at once. Please deduct this second half guinea also from the balance on your account for the third dozen copies of your book. Mr. Pound asked me to send you a copy of Prufrock and I will send it at the same time.

I am much obliged to Mrs Joyce for her cards and for the copy of the Semaine Litteraire with the notice of your book. I am sorry to hear that your recovery is so slow. You must have had a dreadful time. I shall hope to hear better news of you. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1347

Proofs of the concluding pages of your novel did not arrive till yesterday. The printers have been slow but I was afraid to hurry them lest they should do the work badly. I hope you will find I have left few mistakes. All your corrections have been made, including those you asked for in your last letter. I do not know when the copies of the book will be delivered. Already there are a number of orders waiting.

The signed copy of your book Dubliners reached me but not your Chamber Music which was dispatched to you at the same time. I wonder whether it reached you. When the second half guinea from Mr. Frank

Albert is deducted from the 13/2 owing by you the debt is almost cancelled — and I you [folls. del. I] do not seem to have charged for the postage of the 1000 press notices from Zurich. It was 4 frs. 50 which, I suppose, is about 4/—. If you paid this it leaves a small balance in your favour.

I hope your eye is recovered now and that you can be sure that the result of the operation is quite satisfactory. And I hope the climate of Locarno will suit you better than that of Zurich did. I suppose it is very much milder.

I expect your book Ulysses has been delayed and that it will not be finished as soon as you had expected. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1348

I enclose draft for 525 francs (£25), the second payment from the Egoist for the serial rights of your novel Ulysses. The novel is bitter reading to me at least — difficult too, the third section — but of vital interest. I am sorry to say our printers are making difficulties over it. The first episode is in type but at the last moment before going to press for the March number they refused to print it — even with deletions. I am trying to find another firm but it will be difficult I know. I have tried the printers of the Rationalist Press Association whom you suggested some time ago but they have already as much work as they can cope with at this time. I daresay the Southport printer would do it but it would be extremely inconvenient, almost impossible, to have the Egoist printed so far away from London.

A subscription came from M. Jamaints Semper. No other has come so far from Switzerland beyond the one you sent. I will send copies of the paper to Mrs Murray[1] in Dublin as soon as your novel starts. I have sent her the February number. As to sending copies every month (instead of every two months) to you and to the friends from whom you have obtained subscriptions, I am sorry but I am afraid it cannot well be done — at present at any rate — as the newsagent through whom we have to send (to neutral countries and America) makes a favour of doing it at all and is not willing to send a few copies at a time or to send frequently.

Mr. Pound is well again now I think. He had influenza a little time ago. I hope your eye does not trouble you now. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1349

Many thanks for your letter. I had hoped there would have been something definite to say before this as to the appearance of your novel Ulysses in the form of a supplement but the matter is still unsettled. Unfortunately Mr. and Mrs. Woolf came to the conclusion that the printing of a book of

approximately the length of your first novel would be a greater undertaking then they could manage, unaided, on their small hand press. They said it would take them quite two years at the rate at which they work. They would have liked to do it as they were very much interested in the first four episodes which they read.[1] I am now waiting to hear the decision of the firm that printed your other novel but I am not altogether hopeful. If they agree, or if some other firm is found willing to print the supplement,[2] there will be no loss on the book because the extra expense of the the supplement will be offset by the fact that the type will have been set up and therefore your very kind proposal that the money paid for serial rights should be considered as an advance on royalties ultimately due is not one that could with any fairness be taken advantage of. And there is no other novel that we would like to print as a serial in place of yours.[3] The Egoist will be reduced in size by four pages which the supplement runs — it has in fact been reduced already. I wrote to your American publisher with your message.[4] Mr. Pound has sent his copy of the typescript to America and the book started in the Little Review for March. I hope all will go well with the writing of the rest of it. It is not tiresome to me to hear how your book is written: I like to hear it.[5] The sales of the second edition of your other novel are poor, I am sorry to say. Probably the six months' interval was bad for the book. You made a kind proposal in a former letter that the terms of our contract should be modified in view of the increased cost of production.[6] I would suggest therefore that the royalties be paid only on the copies sold and paid for and not also on those supplied but not yet paid for. So far, of 113 copies ordered and supplied only 40 have been paid for to date. It would be nice if the "four thousand" Mr. Pound talks of so glibly were a fact. I sent a copy to Mr. Courtney[7] some weeks ago. I think Mr. Davray will review the book soon. I shall send The Egoist to the Museums: Gesellschaft at Zurich and must thank you for having spoken to the chairman about the journal. I am glad to hear that Messrs Crès[8] have sold their copies of your book. I wrote to the three subscribers you obtained to know if they would prefer me to pass on their subscriptions to the Little Review owing to the delay over Ulysses. Mr. Semper has made his up to the amount and I have just sent it in to Mr. Pound. The other two have not replied.

I am sorry that you have been threatened with trouble in your eye again and hope that the symptoms came to nothing. | With kind regards | yours sincerely

1350

Thanks for the letter received yesterday.[1] I think it not impossible that Mr. Grant Richards, on account of the striking reception of your first novel and because your book Ulysses has been championed by the Times (I expect you had the cutting), would be willing to publish Ulysses; and if you would like him to see as much of it as is in typescript I hope you will say so and not feel bound to let the Egoist have it. If, however, you do give us the refusals [?] we shall be very glad to have the publishing of the book and I think we could get it printed in London. After the last number of the Egoist came out (in April) our printers gave us notice, chiefly, though not entirely, on account of Ulysses.[2] I have since made arrangements with another firm and they are bringing out the next number this week. Half of the sixth episode will appear in it; the other half in the following number. After that the paper is probably to be suspended for a time, partly in order to allow Miss Marsden some free time in which to prepare her philosophical series for publication in book form, and partly in order to develop our book publishing venture.[3] I remember mentioning this new firm in a previous letter: the manager, a Roman Catholic Irishman, had been much interested in your first novel. He has now seen the first ten chapters of Ulysses and so far as he can judge from these will be willing to print the complete text.

It is difficult to know what to say about your suggestion that the book when it is finished be issued in a paper cover at a price equivalent to that current in France. I hear that English publishers are contemplating the issuing of novels in paper covers but I do not suppose that even so the price will be reduced to that of France for in this country the heaviest expense now of a long book is the setting up of the type — and at present also the paper; binding is a smaller item. Miss Marsden had made an opposite suggestion. On the theory that a book should be priced according to the worth of its contents she would like to put the price of Ulysses at a high figure and had proposed 10/6 — (some novels are selling here for 9/—).[4] I do not think that practicable but perhaps this matter could be decided nearer the time of publication when the expenses of publication may have altered. I hope that Mr. Huebsch will keep to his intention of coming to London soon: I had a letter from him too. Mr. Aldington[5] has told me

vaguely something about the worries of which you speak.[6] I am very glad to know that the friendly energy of Mr. Huebsch has lessened them.

Mr. Pound sent me the Sirens episode a little time ago. I think I can see that your writing has been affected to some extent by your worries; I mean that this episode seems to me not quite to reach your usual pitch of intensity. I hope you are able to make progress now with the Cyclops episode. I hope too that your health will improve when you leave what is to you the unhealthy climate of Zurich and that you will have less trouble with your eyes.

Perhaps I had better add that it was I who sent the message through Messrs Monro, Saw and Co, and that I am sorry I sent it in the way and in the form I did.[7] It is rather paralysing to communicate through solicitors. I fear you will have to withdraw all words about delicacy and self effacement: I can only beg you to forgive my lack of them. | With kind regards | yours sincerely

1351

Many thanks for your letter[1] and for the translation of your play Exiles which reached me a day or two before I came here. Though I have forgotten nearly all the little German I ever knew I am very glad to have it and it is an added satisfaction that you should have given it to me on the day of its first production — at the Munich Schauspielhaus.[2] The two papers with the notices also reached me and I made out the gist of them

with the help of a dictionary. The play seems to have puzzled the audience. I do not know why you should have been surprised that it interested me — though I think you have more scope in a novel with its freer form — in spite of the difficulties you have set yourself in Ulysses: the necessity of compressing all the wanderings into the compass of one day.[3] It is odd that your mention of any person in it should have such a fatal effect![4]

I enclose a letter from a Mr. Boynan to whom I have replied that you lately had negotiations with someone else (Mr. Bazilo) but that I did not know whether anything had been finally arranged but would ask you. Will you therefore either write to Mr. Boynan yourself or let me know what to say? I have kept his address. I think I shall be staying on here till September 2nd — to spend my birthday with my brother's family at the sea instead of in London by myself as for several years past. | With many kind regards | Yours sincerely

1352

Your telegram from Milan reached me safely but I stupidly did not understand from it that you were giving your new address in Trieste.[1] I stupidly took it to mean that you were travelling there via some town called Sanita (a town I had never heard of) and I thought the "two" must be due to some mistake of the telegraphist. I therefore only reported to Mr. Pound that you were travelling to Trieste "via Sanita" and I hope he has not written to your old address. On receiving your letter two days ago I wrote at once to him to correct my mistake. I asked him at the same time for the episode of the Cyclops and it reached me last night. I have read it through but too hastily to venture on any comment — except the passing remark that on finishing the chapter it was difficult to speak straight and to avoid interlarding one's words with the favourite and quite unladylike adjective employed so constantly by the figure who is the narrator in this episode![2] I noticed a number of mistakes in the typescript and I shall read it through carefully and make what corrections I can.

I will send you tomorrow the two copies of your novel for which you ask. I shall send you also a small new book by Mr. Wyndham Lewis which you may perhaps be interested to see.[3]

I am very sorry to hear of the misfortune that befel [sic] your flat and

its contents and that you find the whole situation so discouraging.[4] The difficulty as to house accommodations seems to be very widespread. It is acute in this country and particularly so in London at present. Mr. Aldington has for months been in want of a flat and is very depressed at not being able to find one. I hope you will have better fortune soon and be less worried. | With many kind regard[s] | Yours sincerely

1353

I enclose Mr. Quinn's defence of Ulysses just received from Mr. Eliot. Mr. Quinn does not wish it to appear in The Egoist in this, its original form and so far he has not sent a revised version and I do not know whether or not he intends to do so. I think it would be well to preserve the document in case of future trouble over Ulysses on its publication in book form in this country. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1354

I have sent you for Christmas, in case it should interest you to see them some photographs of myself, two new ones and an old one. The new ones are said to be good likenesses of what I am now; but they are deceptive in a way — though not, I believe, so very much more than I am myself and have been at all ages — for in reality I am old. To be precise, I was forty three on September 1st and am therefore just five years and five months older than yourself. I fancy that Mr. Pound and the rest of them except Miss Marsden imagine me to be several years younger than I am and I do not disillusion them, for, though not to bear the traces of all one's years upon one's face is scarcely a fact to be proud of, I am so weak as to allow myself the pleasure of being credited still with something of youth. In connection with this matter of age I may say that I saw your verses in the August number of the Anglo-French Review and find them very apt for myself in certain moods, especially in moods in which the thought of my great age weighs upon me and depresses me.[1] But to be more cheerful — I enclose (with this letter) an old snapshot which may perhaps amuse you. The figures are: my youngest brother, my eldest niece and myself.

I hope the things I sent you last month reached you safely, in particular Mr. Quinn's splendid defence of Ulysses, of which I have no copy. If the various things that I have sent you have reached you and if you have found the posts in other ways satisfactory, perhaps you might venture soon to send me the manuscript of your book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young

Man.[2] I think I have expressed very little appreciation of the gift of it that you are making me: please understand that I shall value it very highly indeed.

To judge from accounts there have been recently in English papers of strikes and disturbances in many Italian towns I fear the situation in Trieste can have improved little, if at all, since you wrote soon after your return there. I hope, however, that you have met with some success in your weary search for a flat. I hope too that your eyes are better now you are away from Zurich and that you have no threatening of illness this winter. | With good wishes for Christmas and kind regards | Yours sincerely

1355

I telegraphed to you last week informing you that three parcels had arrived and thanking you for them. These three followed one another closely and I waited several days in the hope that the fourth would also arrive. However, I am very glad to say that it came last night. I notice that the postmark is the 14th and presume the delay was due to the Italian postal and railway disorganization. I am doubly glad that the whole manuscript has arrived intact because, though I am touched that you should suggest copying out for me any or all of it that might fail to reach me, I should have been very sorry for you to waste your time in such a way and strain your eyes unnecessarily on my account. In view of what happened to the "original" original[1] it is fortunate that the chapters of Ulysses are typed out as soon as they are written and the typescript dispatched to safer keeping in England and America!

I should certainly like to have any photographs you can send me other than those I have already: these being the one you sent me last summer (at what date it was taken I do not know, but I imagine it must have been soon after an illness for you look very pale) and one (a profile) you sent for The Egoist about three years ago at the time when you sent Mr. Huebsch the photograph with what Mr. Pound called the pathological eyes which

Mr. Huebsch used for the cover of his edition of your book Chamber Music of which he sent me a copy.

I do not come from any so fascinating spot as St. Ives[2] (where I have merely stayed twice) but from Cheshire — an overgrown village, Frodsham, on a flat stretch of land at the foot of a ridge of hills halfway between Chester and Warrington. My father was the doctor of the district and I lived there till I was fifteen; afterwards at Hampstead, a north London suburb, till 1914. I am afraid I am hopelessly English, unadulterated Saxon. My mother was from Lancashire — her father a cotton mill owner in the Manchester district — my father from Chester where his father had been a doctor before him. I have, by the way, cousins in Belfast (one of my father's sisters having married a Presbyterian minister there) who are violent Orangemen! But you will be bored with all this.

You mention that copies of your novel reached a firm, Messrs Bemporad, but not Messrs Schimsoff.[3] But you had not asked me to send copies to either of these firms; or if you had, the letter or card was lost in the post. I can only suppose that the former firm obtained the books through an export agent: possibly through a French firm, Messrs Hachette, who, for the first time, sent for two copies of the book a few weeks ago. They sent for two more copies this morning and I inquired whether these were by any chance for Messrs Schimsoff but the messenger did not know. Please let me know if I am to send any copies, and the address.

With very grateful thanks and with best wishes for your birthday | Yours sincerely

1356

At the suggestion of Mr. Pound I posted yesterday a copy of his book Quia Pauper Amavi and of Mr. Lewis's books Tarr and The Caliph's Design [1] to Mr. Silvio Benco in the hope of a notice in his journal.[2] If you happen to see him perhaps you could mention the matter to him. I will send him also a copy of your novel which he had not seen when he wrote about you in July 1918 and which I think he well deserves. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1357

I enclose a notice of your novel just received from New Zealand. As I am uncertain what will be the order of my movements till the middle of June please address anything to me up to that date to: | 23 Adelphi Terrace House | London, W. C. 2 | and it will be forwarded.

Mr. Pound tells me that he is hoping to see you before long when he goes to Italy. | With kind regards | Yours sincerely

1358

A copy of your novel was sent last week to the Leipzig firm, the publishers of the Tauchnitz editions.[1] I gave directions that it should go by express registered post and so hope that it will arrive without much delay. I do not think that The Egoist has any continental rights over the book, but in any case, of course, we would not exercise them under present conditions when the rate of exchange makes the price of English books prohibitive to continental buyers. Many thanks for sending me the first act of Esuli.[2] I hope that the complete book will be published later in volume form in Milan. The two copies of Mr. Benco's article on Tarr which you were so kind as to send off have not yet reached me though I have written to my assistant for them. Perhaps they have been delayed in the post.

Mr. Pinker sent me the agreement he had drawn up for Ulysses. Perhaps you will allow the question of the price to be discussed later. English readers do not now expect to obtain a new novel for 6/—: indeed the mind of the British public appears to be such that the higher the price of an article the greater the value attached to it. There could perhaps be a Tauchnitz edition of this book also afterwards so that your desire for a low priced book for the continent could be met.

I am sorry that Mr. Pound had to leave Venice hastily for the Lake of Garda without seeing you. He had told me that he intended to go to Trieste. I suppose that the Oxen of the Sun episode, now being typed you say, concludes the second part of Ulysses (the Odyssy [sic]) for I remember that you told me that the book would contain seventeen episodes in all, three in the last part.[3]

I leave this address (my brother-in-law's) this week and go to my aunts in Frodsham where I shall probably remain till I am able to get back to London, about June 21st. Many thanks for your kind inquiries about my aunt. The operation was successful; but in her case there were no complications and it was therefore not so difficult as in yours — nor was the ordeal so dreadful, though bad enough. | With kind regards | yours sincerely

1359

I am glad to say that the copies of Mr. Silvio's Benco's article on Tarr, so kindly sent by you, reached me today. Many thanks also for the copy of Poesia [1] received by the same post. I like your verses. | With kind regards | 1/6/20

Notes