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Notes
I am grateful to Mr. George Healey and the Cornell University Library for permission to publish from the Cornell Joyce Collection, to Messrs. Hope Leresche and Steele for securing the permission of the Pinker family for this edition, and to the American Philosophical Society for support during the time the edition was prepared.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ran almost continuously in the Egoist magazine from February 1914 to September 1915.
In his reply (17 March 1915) Joyce told Pinker that he should contact Ezra Pound who would act as his intermediary. Letters of James Joyce, ed. Stuart Gilbert (1957), p. 77.
Joyce's contract of 20 March 1914 with Thomas Franklin Grant Richards, publisher of Dubliners, provided no royalties to Joyce for the first 500 copies and gave Richards first rights to publish all of Joyce's works for five years from the publication date of Dubliners (15 June 1914). The contract is in the Cornell collection, No. 1396.
In this agreement with Pinker (5 April 1915) Joyce makes him the agent for only his dramatic work. Cornell No. 1397.
In this contract Joyce agrees to let Pinker handle "all literary work," except that to be published under the previous contract with Grant Richards. The agreement with Pinker could be broken in twelve months following notice given by either party. Cornell No. 1398.
Joyce had been led to believe by a remark in a letter he had received from H. L. Mencken (3 March 1915) that an American edition of Dubliners had appeared. After further correspondence with Mencken and an exchange of letters with Ben W. Huebsch, he learned there was no such edition, although Huebsch later did bring out a first American edition of Dubliners (December 1916).
Joyce replied to Pinker (9 May 1915), advising him of Grant Richards' complaint that the serial publication of Portrait without his consent violated their Dubliners contract. For Richards' letter to Joyce, see Robert Scholes, "Grant Richards to James Joyce," Studies in Bibliography, XVI (1963), 156. Joyce pointed out to Pinker that the Egoist's rights antedated the contract with Richards. See Gilbert, p. 80.
Joyce had written (30 April 1915) to Harriet Shaw Weaver, editor of the Egoist, asking her to send Pinker a copy of this issue, "as it may be useful for him to understand in what relations I stand and have stood till now with my publisher." Gilbert, p. 80. The issue contains an article, "A Curious History," in which Joyce's difficulties in publishing Dubliners are recounted.
Harriet Weaver had sent Richards the latter part of the MS of Portrait along with copies of the Egoist containing the portions of the novel which had already come out, and she needed the text back in order to set up the remainder of the novel. Richards returned it directly to her instead of to Pinker. See John Firth, "Harriet Weaver's Letters to James Joyce, 1915-1920," Studies in Bibliography, XX (1967), 153-4.
Joyce's letter, Gilbert, p. 80. The enclosure was a copy of his sales account with Grant Richards, showing total sales of 499 copies of Dubliners.
The postcard announces Joyce's arrival at the Gasthof Hoffnung, Zurich, and asks for any news which might have missed him in Venice because of Italy's entry into the war. Ellmann, II, 349.
Joyce had not yet sent Exiles. He mentions in a letter to W. B. Yeats (17 July 1915) that he is arranging to have a typescript made "in exchange for a certain number of lessons." Gilbert, p. 83.
Pound had begun his agitation to ease Joyce's financial difficulties by asking Wells and W. B. Yeats to recommend Joyce for a grant from the Royal Literary Fund. Pound's letter to Joyce on this matter (3 July 1915), Cornell No. 1024.
Hence, not the hairsbreadth encounter with profit described in Richard Ellmann's, James Joyce (1959), p. 412, as, "one short of the number after which Joyce was to receive royalties." By the terms of his agreement with Richards, Joyce could be credited with only 461 books sold, leaving 39 to be sold before royalties. Nor is the term in the contract with Richards (part 17, "thirteen copies counting as twelve throughout") to be taken as another piece of villany on Richards' part. It is the same understanding Joyce entered into with Miss Weaver for the publication of Portrait (see Firth, pp. 167-168), and was the result of a convention of the bookseller's trade whereby the shops received thirteen copies for every dozen ordered, dozen lots being charged at a reduced price.
Joyce later explained to Pinker (13 September 1915) that an article (review of Dubliners) was in the 25 February 1915 issue of New Age. Ellmann, Letters, II, 367.
Joyce suggested withdrawing Portrait from Duckworth and sending it to Conard, offering him British and Continental rights on the terms that he publish it "as an ordinary French novel in yellow wrappers at 3 fr. 50c.," and not in the form of a Tauchnitz or Conard Standard edition. Gilbert, p. 84.
Joyce's letter (10 November 1915), Gilbert, p. 86. Joyce said he was sending two poems to be submitted to the Saturday Review "or any other paper which will print them and pay well and quickly." The Saturday Review (London) had previously accepted "Song" (Chamber Music, XXIV) and "Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba" (Pomes Penyeach) for the 14 May 1904 and 20 September 1913 issues, but took no further verses from Joyce.
Joyce was still pressing Pinker to "try some such scheme as I suggested" (i.e., the Conard scheme), adding that he had written about his idea to Arthur Symons and directing Pinker to send Symons the typescript of Portrait should he ask for it.
Joyce asked about Duckworth's decision on Portrait, and told Pinker that Pound had stimulated the interests of Werner Laurie, John Lane, and "the niece of a French premier and a person of influence," Mlle. de Pratz. Pound's letter to Joyce (27 November 1915), Cornell No. 1031.
Joyce told Pinker of Harriet Weaver's offer to publish Portrait, and approved of the offer. But he encouraged Pinker to continue to pursue other possibilities. "All these schemes can be worked simultaneously one against the other, can they not?" The French venture, here, refers to still another connection, this time through Mme. Muriel Ciolkowska, Paris correspondent for the Egoist, whom Miss Weaver had earlier suggested might be able to find a French publisher. Mme. Ciolkowska was unable to help. Her letter to Joyce (19 December 1915), Cornell No. 447.
Joyce's postcards (5 and 7 February 1916) ask Pinker to send Exiles to Allen Wade and to put Portrait in Miss Weaver's hands "so that it may be brought out as quickly as possible." Ellmann, Letters, II, 374.
Pinker's contract stipulated that the novel be published in 1916, and since Miss Weaver was having trouble finding a printer she was afraid she would not be able to fulfill the terms of the agreement. "I should have no hesitation in signing it," she wrote to Joyce (25 March 1916), "if we had only you to deal with, but it is a different matter to be in Mr. Pinker's hands." Firth, p. 158.
Drama then seemed a likely place to publish Exiles, for they had just printed an article on the play by Pound in February.
Probably with Huebsch who had shown interest in acquiring American rights to all of Joyce's work. See Huebsch's letter to Harriet Weaver (16 June 1916), Gilbert, p. 91.
The American publisher, John Marshall, at Pound's urging had agreed in May 1916 to publish Portrait, but was to back out of his promise in July, at which time Pinker was instructed to take up Huebsch's offer.
Because of the difficulty in finding a British printer for Portrait, Miss Weaver decided to take sets of printed sheets from Huebsch to be bound and sold as the first English edition.
Huebsch wished to add "the condition that I secure an option on the book which would normally succeed A Portrait. . . . Also that some arrangement be made by which I secure sheets of Dubliners." Gilbert, p. 91.
Joyce very much wanted the novel out that year, and wrote to Huebsch (24 October 1916), "If, however, the book be delayed beyond the end of the year I should be much obliged if the date on the frontispiece be printed as 1916." Gilbert, p. 97.
Since Huebsch had been unable to secure John Marshall's corrected copy of the text, the text mentioned here was made up of cuttings from the Egoist with corrections added by Joyce. See Firth, pp. 161-2.
At the ratio of 13/12 again, Joyce is credited with sales of 495 copies when 536 were distributed.
William Archer, British playwright, to whom Joyce had written to ask help in placing Exiles. For Archer's letters in reply, see Cornell Nos. 397, 398.
Edward Knoblock, British playwright and novelist. Pound had suggested that Knoblock see the MS. of Exiles, and that he might possibly write a "stage version" of the play, noting that plays are not acted exactly as written and that Joyce might make use of the original version whenever it could be printed. Pound's letters to Joyce, Cornell Nos. 1341, 1342.
Slips were to be printed containing statements from reviews of Dubliners. See Joyce's letter to Harriet Weaver (16 December 1916), Gilbert, p. 96.
Although the serial publication of Ulysses did not begin in the Little Review until March 1918, Pound had already shown Margaret Anderson some of the early chapters. Huebsch also took the back cover of the March issue (III, No. 9) to introduce "James Joyce, an Irishman of distinction whose two books [Dubliners and Portrait] compel the attention of discriminating seekers after brains in books."
"James Joyce," The Nation, XX, No. 21 (24 February 1917), 710-12, repeated in The New Republic (10 March 1917).
Alice Fredman, Secretary of the Stage Society, wrote to Pinker (23 March 1917), asking if they might read the play again. Later, at Joyce's direction, Pinker was to ask the Society to return the MS (10 July 1917). Joyce heard that despite Sturge Moore's support of Exiles, G. B. Shaw had stood against its adoption. See Ellmann, James Joyce, p. 429, and a letter from Miss Fredman to Sturge Moore (7 November 1917), Cornell No. 604.
John Quinn, New York lawyer who later defended the Little Review's serial publication of Ulysses, was buying the MSS of Joyce's works. For Quinn's acknowledgement of receipt of one page of corrections for Dubliners and seven pages for Portrait, see his letter to Nora Joyce (16 June 1917), Cornell No. 1099.
Harriet Weaver had sent Huebsch corrections for use in the second American edition, but they arrived too late. Miss Weaver later asked that they be returned to her for a second English edition. See Firth, pp. 172-4.
Annie Elizabeth Horniman, backer for the Abbey Theatre and founder of the Manchester Repertory Theatre.
Joyce proposed paperback editions of groups of episodes from Ulysses, the initial paperback to contain the first three chapters and to appear that autumn.
Joyce wanted Huebsch to send him a copy of The Rainbow and charge it to his account. British court action against this novel had caused much of the difficulty in finding English printers for Portrait and Ulysses. For Joyce's delayed reply to this letter (29 July 1918), See Gilbert, p. 115.
The Skandinavisk Theater Bureau wished to handle Exiles but had trouble securing a text. Their letters to Joyce, Cornell Nos. 1250-51.
Also in Joyce's reply of 22 June. Huebsch was to receive as much typescript as was completed from the Little Review. "Circe" was being finished, and Huebsch was to expect a duplicate text directly from Joyce. The remaining three episodes Joyce said he would send "in triplicate" to Huebsch, Margaret Anderson, and Harriet Weaver that autumn. E.L.A., p.22. For Joyce's deviation from these plans, see Walton Litz's chart of Joyce's working schedule for Ulysses, Ellmann, James Joyce, p. 456.
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