:: :: University of Virginia Library

Let us begin with the bill dated 23 May 1914 from the Libreria F. H. Schimpff in Trieste, recording fifty crownsowed for twenty books that had been purchased by Joyce over the previous seven months. 6 Three of the titles on this bill are inaccurately transcribed by Ellmann, who was the first to deal with this document: 7

Berlitz, I
Sauer, Englische Grammatik
Schlüssel, Englische Grammatik

Based on inspection of the bill itself (fig. 1), the first entry is more precisely "Berlitz,
I livre," making it identifiable with M. D. Berlitz's Premier livre pour l'enseignement
des langues modernes. 8 It was therefore a French textbook, and may even have been
for Joyce himself, who knew the language but was continuing to study it at this
time. 9 The initial parts of Ellmann's other two entries are misguided. These are
not authors' names at all: the first is the title of the series, "Methode Gaspey-
Otto-Sauer," in which the language book Englische Konversations-Grammatik was
published; 10 while the word Schlüssel means "Keys" in German, and Ellmann
has evidently also missed the abbreviation "z." for the preposition "zur." As
the bill shows, the actual line is "Schlussel z — — [i.e., Engl. Grammatik]"; in

231

[Description: FIGURE 1. Schimpff Bill. Courtesy of Cornell University Library.]

232

other words, "Keys to" Englische Konversations-Grammatik. It emerges finally as the
answer book to the previous title on the list, 11 which stands to reason, since both
texts were purchased onthe same day. Joyce no doubt purchased both books to
teach English to his Triestine students, some of whom were German.

[ 5. ]

Ellmann, "Joyce's Library in 1920," p. 97. On this subject, see Dirk Van Hulle, "Digi-
tal Library History: The Virtual Bookcases of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett," Quaerendo 46
(2016), 192–204.

[ 6. ]

F. H. Schimpff, "Bill Sent to James Joyce," James Joyce Collection, #4609, Division of
Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Series II, Box 3, Folder 26, MS
1401. This bill did not appear in the The James Joyce Archive (hereafter JJA), ed. Michael Groden
et al., 63 vols. (New York, 1977–1979), but is reproduced here as figure 1. It is suggested by
Gillespie, "A Critique of Ellmann's List," p. 33 that since the bill was not fully paid, Joyce may
not have owned all of these books. However, it is more likely that he bought them all on credit,
as he usually did, which often led to threats of being sued; see Gordon Bowker, James Joyce: A
Biography (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011), 159, 173–174, 186, 207.

[ 7. ]

These transcriptions are from Ellmann, "Joyce's Library in 1920," pp. 101, 126. Com-
pare also id., James Joyce, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982), 779.

[ 8. ]

M. D. Berlitz, Premier livre pour l'enseignement des langues modernes: partie française pour
adultes (Berlin: S. Cronbach, 1902).Joyce probably bought the revised edition, which was newly
available (New York: Berlitz, 1913).

[ 9. ]

See e.g. James Joyce, Notes, Criticism, Translations & Miscellaneous Writings: A Facsimile
of Manuscripts & Typescripts, 2 vols., ed. Hans Walter Gabler (New York: Garland, 1979), 2: 72
(= JJA 3: 72); also Bowker, James Joyce, pp. 23, 56, 134.

[ 10. ]

Thomas Gaspey, Englische Konversations-Grammatik zum Schul- und Privatunterricht,
2nd ed., ed. H. Runge (Heidelberg: J. Groos, 1852). The most recent edition of this book was
the twenty-fifth edition, which had been published in 1911.