First edition, number 550 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 fine copy, fresh and crisp, with just a trace of wear to a couple of corners and spine ends. Internally unimpeachable, with a contemporary pencil name and discreet bookplate to inside front wrapper. A stunning example and rare in this condition.

The author's most famous work and tour de force of modern literature. The first printing of Ulysses consisted of 1000 numbered copies to be sold by subscription. Copies number 1-100 were printed on Holland handmade paper and each signed by Joyce; copies 101-250 were printed on vergé d'Arches and the remaining 750 copies on linen paper, the least expensive stock.
Following a disastrous serialisation in the Little Review, 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".
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.
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.

PROVENANCE: G.O.Mitchell (pencil inscription dated 1922 and bookplate)

Slocum A17; Connolly 42

Stock ID: 33546