Topic 1: Shakespeare & Company

James Joyce's Ulysses

In 1921, episodes from Joyce's Ulysses published in the US in the Little Review were judged obscene, and Beach undertook to publish the work in Paris under the imprint of Shakespeare and Company, using Monnier's Dijon printer Maurice Darantierre. The first printing of 1000 copies was rapidly bought up, largely by collectors and dealers. Included here are copies of:

• the first edition, 1922 (title page, limitation from no. 890, F. Scott Fitzgerald's copy, and an inserted inscription by Joyce to Fitzgerald); the library's second copy has the original blue wrappers bound in;
• the 5th printing, 1924 (in white wrappers);
• the 7th printing, 1925 (open to show imprint);
• the 8th printing, 1926 (in blue wrappers, as above);
• and the 10th printing, 1928 (open to show the printing history).