First edition, number 619 of 750 copies on handmade paper, from a total edition of 1000 copies. Original 'Greek flag' blue-green wrappers, lettered in white to upper cover. A very good copy indeed with bright colouring which shows a little wear to the spine ends and a couple of paper repairs to the spine. Internally clean and fresh. A well preserved example of a fragile book. Housed in a custom-made chemise and quarter morocco slipcase.

The author's most famous work and tour de force of modern literature. On the recommendation of Ezra Pound, Margaret Andersen serialised the novel in her "Little Review" between 1918 and 1921. Although the serialisation was completed, it ultimately finished The Little Review and led to its editors being tried for obscenity. As a result of this debacle, Joyce feared that even should he be able to find a publisher, the act of serialisation and the stigma attached to the following court case would make the novel unsaleable. It was to Sylvia Beach and her small Parisian bookshop, Shakespeare and Company that Joyce turned. Beach, like Andersen before her, had immediately seen the genius in Ulysses, and wrote to her mother that she might be soon to publish "the most important book of the age". It was decided to publish 1000 copies by subscription. 100 copies on Holland handmade paper (signed), 150 copies on vergé d'Arches and 750 copies on linen. A further 20 copies were produced, unwrappered on mixed paper and marked, "press copy". A printer was found in Maurice Darantière of Dijon and publication was planned for October. The printing process was not nearly as straightforward as anticipated, due in part to Joyce's continual rewriting of the text and his and Beach's perfectionism in the printing process. The publication date was continually moved back and eventually 2 February 1922, Joyce's birthday, was settled upon. But even then only two copies were ready, sent by Darantière via the Paris-Dijon express. One was put on display at Shakespeare and Company and the other taken, unopened by Joyce, to his birthday celebrations at the Italian restaurant, Ferrari's.
"He had brought with him a package containing his copy of Ulysses, and placed it under his chair. Nora remarked that he had thought about the book for sixteen years, and spent seven years writing it. Everyone asked to see it opened, but he seemed to shrink from producing it. After the dessert he at last untied the parcel and laid the book on the table. It was bound in the Greek colours - white letters on a blue field - that he considered lucky for him, and suggesting the myth of Greece and Homer, the white island raising from the sea. There was a toast to the book and its author which left Joyce deeply moved" (Richard Ellman - James Joyce).
The remaining copies were delivered in tranches and all 1000 of the first edition were sold within a month. It is now recognised as one of the key works of the twentieth century and the defining work of the modernist movement.
"...like a ruined temple soaring from a jungle." - Cyril Connolly (100 Key Books of the Modern Movement)

Slocum A17; Connolly 42

Stock ID: 27208