Westportbooks

15/09/2021

15/09/2021

[email protected] is pleased to announce the publication of Anthony j Jordan's 20th book.- titled;
SECOND SANDYMOUNT MAN A MEMOIR OF LETTERS.

17/03/2020

The English woman who bankrolled James Joyce
First Joyce and later Ireland were beneficiaries of Harriet Shaw Weaver’s generosity
Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 05:49
Anthony Jordan Irish Times

Harriet Shaw Weaver: Joyce encouraged her to criticise his work but punished her for doing so

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Harriet Shaw Weaver was a wealthy English feminist interested in social and political affairs. She subscribed to The Freewoman and saved it financially as it changed its name to The New Freewoman, later becoming The Egoist with Harriet as editor.
Harriet Weaver came into contact with James Joyce in 1914 when The Egoist began to serialise his A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Ezra Pound was involved with the Journal and on WB Yeats’ recommendation had written to Joyce in Trieste seeking material for the magazine. Pound wrote to her: “Permit me to sympathise with you in your newfound painful position as editor”. She dedicated herself to protecting writers from censorship by refusing to cede to printer’s objections. Joyce sent her succeeding chapters through Switzerland, as the first World War was about to break out. Joyce wrote: “It is very kind of you to take so much trouble in the matter”.
Outgoings at the Egoist were a multiple of 10 to income. It became a monthly to defray costs. Though Harriet was wealthy she liked to manage her finances carefully. She paid Joyce £50 for serialising Portrait. He wrote: “I have no words to thank you for your generosity and kindness”.
In 1914 Grant Richards finally published his Dubliners after a painful nine-year delay. Harriet’s confidence in his work remained unshaken as Joyce wrote to her “I have been wondering why the Egoist couldn’t do it”. He told her that he had never received any payment for his published work, adding “I dislike the prospect of waiting another nine years for the same result. I am writing a book Ulysses and I want the other published and out of the way once and all.”
Harriet then decided that she wanted to give Joyce a steady income and settled £5,000 of war loans secretly on him as capital. He wondered who the patron was but she kept that secret until July 1919.
They had been corresponding for the previous five years at a business level. But the relationship became more personal as he began to write her about his birthdays, his health and his frustrations about his current work on Ulysses. They then exchanged photographs of each other. She was five years older than he. James offered her the manuscript of A Portrait. James was convinced of his uniqueness as a writer and Harriet acknowledged this in her matter-of-fact style. She then decided to suspend publishing The Egoist and concentrate on publishing A Portrait of the Artist, the manuscript of which arrived to her in 44 parcels. It was published by Harriet in 1917. She settled more money on him for his living quarters in Paris. Harriet was still unacquainted with Joyce’s darker side of expensive living.
Joyce’s main concern then became the publication of Ulysses. The Little Review in America had published extracts and ended in court for the July-August extract. It lost the case in February 1921. Huebesh, the American publisher, withdrew from publishing Ulysses and Joyce offered it to Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare & Co. in Paris and also to Harriet’s Egoist Press in London for a limited English edition. Harriet wired Joyce £200, which calmed him.
It was at this time that Harriet learned from Wyndham Lewis about the lavish lifestyle Joyce enjoyed in Paris, usually ending up being very drunk most evenings. Harriet wrote to Joyce on the evils of drink, leaving him shattered. He felt that he had to defend himself somewhat and wrote confessionally to her on June 24th, 1921: “My head is full of pebbles and rubbish. The tasks I set myself technically in writing a book from different points of view in as many styles, all apparently unknown or undiscovered by my fellow tradesmen, that and the nature of the legend chosen would be enough to upset anyone’s mental balance. I want to finish the book and try to settle my entangled material affairs. After that I want a good long rest in which to forget Ulysses completely.
“I now end this long rambling shambling speech having said nothing of the darker aspects of my detestable character. I suppose the law should now take its course with me because it must now seem to you a waste of rope to accomplish the dissolution of a person has now dissolved visibly and possess scarcely as much ‘pandability’ as an inhabited dressing gown’.”
Harriet was a rational person, who once she had shown loyalty, was incapable of withdrawing it. This proved lucky for Joyce. Sylvia Beach was worried about how the novel would sell. Harriet decided to postpone the English edition as Joyce wanted it to appear on his birthday, February 22nd, 1922. On February 12th he sent her a copy of the book numbered one. She was honoured. Harriet worried about his future and felt he needed a large private income. She settled £1,500 on him and promised more as his deteriorating eyesight and poor living conditions continued to worry her. Joyce came to London for a holiday in August 1922 and impressed Harriet with his charm, wit and dignity. She and Nora Barnacle got on very well.
Harriet wondered whether she might be prosecuted for publishing an obscene text in Ulysses and suffer the indignity of having her house raided by the police. When her Egoist edition appeared she sold it directly to London shops. It got mixed reviews. Shane Leslie wrote that it was “an assault on human decency”. It was seized by customs officials and Harriet did not claim it, presuming it had been destroyed. It was now banned in England and America so Joyce’s income was poor, leading Harriet to invest £21,000 as capital for his regular income. His own attitude was that as an exceptional artist he was entitled at somebody else’s expense, to a living appropriate to his status. Harriet was relieved to be able to part with her unearned income. Neither of them liked keeping money.
Harriet closed the Egoist Press and sold the rights of Dubliners, Exiles, Chamber Music plus stock to Jonathan Cape. She was no longer his publisher but his friend. Her settlement to him was finalised in May 1924.
Joyce began to send pages of his new work “Work in Progress” to Harriet for corrections and comments. She became a regular visitor to Paris including travelling for Joyce’s birthday in 1925, where for the first time she saw him drunk. It upset her but was not enough to wreck their friendship. She also met and liked Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier.
Their letter-writing continued with details about his domestic life and health to the fore. He continued to send her pages of his Work in Progress, which she corrected for mistakes. She was confident enough to write to him in 1926: “It seems to me that you are wasting your genius. I daresay I am wrong”. But she felt that he should continue with it.
Joyce encouraged her to criticize the book but punished her for doing so. She then felt that she should cease giving her opinion. On a visit to Paris in 1927 Harriet told Joyce that he could count on her as long as she lived. He spent many days explaining what the book was about, after which she warmed to it again. He wrote to her saying that he was very glad she came to Paris because “at least I know where I stand”. When Nora Barnacle was suspected of having cancer, Harriet came to Paris for two months.
Copyright problems arose again when Joyce wanted to reserve copyright of Work in Progress by publishing in the US. This upset Sylvia Beach who felt that as she had been helping Joyce for so long that she should have been the choice for publishing it. This caused a rift between Sylvia and Harriet as the former realised that Harriet was so devoted to Joyce that she was always on his side. Paul Leon, by then also engaged in looking after Joyce’s literary affairs, saw eye to eye with Harriet. Sylvia’s business was affected by the Wall St Crash.
Joyce’s financial affairs remained chaotic as usual. He now wanted Harriet to agree to give him some more of the capital she had invested to provide him with a regular income. She replied that now that his son Georgio was to marry, she hoped that his expenses would lessen. Joyce did not reply for seven weeks.
Joyce and Nora came to London to be married in July 1930. Harriet witnessed James drink too much and tip the waiter a £5 note. She tried unsuccessfully to get him to drink water first at dinner and then his normal two bottles of wine.
Around that time Joyce made the momentous decision to appoint Harriet as his literary executrix. He wrote: “I shall leave all my manuscripts to Harriet Shaw Weaver and direct that she shall have sole decision in all literary matters relating to my published and unpublished work”.
When Joyce’s father died he wrote to Harriet on January 17th, 1931, saying, “I am thinking of abandoning work altogether and leaving the thing unfinished with blanks. Why go on writing about a place I dare not go to at such a moment? My father had an extraordinary affection for me. He was the silliest man I ever knew and yet cruelly shrewd. He thought and talked of me up to his last breath. I got from him his portraits, a waist coat, a good tenor voice and an extravagant disposition. It is not his death that crushed me so much but self-accusations.”
Harriet sought to get him to persevere though he concluded that she also condemned him utterly. Nevertheless he regarded her as the elective angel who had confirmed his faith in his own genius. She never felt that their friendship gave her any rights with him as she wrote off his recent debts to her.
When Harriet came to Paris in December 1936 she and Joyce had not met for two years. Both James and his wife were in poor health. Harriet promised him that she would help him until the new book was published. Their easy relationship was never re-established and they never met again, though they continued to exchange letters.
Finnegans Wake was published on May 4th , 1939 by Faber & Faber of London. Harriet wrote to Joyce in March defending herself against his feelings that she was in any way responsible for Lucia’s troubles. When she heard that the Joyces had gone to Zurich she was relieved. Within a month Harrier heard the announcement on BBC Radio of Joyce’s sudden death on January 13th, 1941. She immediately sent £250 to Nora to cover the funeral costs.
Harriet’s burden did not decrease now that Joyce had died. After a short period she began to think of her role as his literary executor. In which library should she deposit his manuscripts and papers? Favouring the British Museum, she consulted TS Eliot who put the idea of a Dublin library into her mind. She then favoured Dublin and consulted Con Curran on which Dublin library would be most appropriate. He agreed with Eliot that Dublin was the appropriate location and advocated the National Library of Ireland. She appointed solicitor Fred Monroe as her attorney. Matters of copyright and royalties had to be dealt with. She dealt with this business in a cautious way and succeeded in getting regular income for Nora. This ongoing work helped Harriet through the negative painful experiences she had recently encountered with Joyce.
After the war Harriet was immersed in work for Joyce as scholars and institutions vied for Joycean material. In 1949 she went again to Paris for the La Hune Exhibition on Joyce organised by Maria Jolas to raise money for Nora. It had had been 13 years since Harriet had met Nora.
Harriet learned that Nora was unhappy about her intention to donate the manuscript of Finnegans Wake to the NLI. Nora had been badly hurt by the refusal of the Irish government to repatriate her husband’s body. But she acknowledged Harriet’s right to act as she wished.
In 1950 Harriet went to Paris and saw Giorgio Joyce as his mother was then very ill. He reiterated his own and his mother’s wish that the manuscript of Finnegans Wake should not go to Dublin. In the end, though the NLI had been told to expect the manuscript, Harriet felt obliged to donate it to the British Museum.
Harriet also had the manuscript of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man which she had not mentioned to the Joyces. She decided to donate this to the NLI together with other material including Lucia’s Chaucer ABC. Richard Hayes of the NLI responded by writing on June 27th, 1951: “We do appreciate here the wonderful support you gave for so many years to Mr Joyce’s work and Ireland is under a very great debt to you for all that. The Joyce family seems determined that we shall have as little as possible; why I do not know. You must do what you think is best. I wonder what Joyce himself would have wished.”
The material was handed over at the Irish Embassy in London. Harriet was as usual her demure self until the Ambassador FH Boland began to speak of the Joyce that he had encountered so often in Paris. Then she perked up in enjoyment and promised to add to her donation her no 1. copy of Ulysses that Joyce had given her so many years ago. Harriet continued to work as literary executor, having also been appointed by Giorgio and Lucia as administrator of the Joyce estate. In 1959 she fell and entered a nursing home. She died on October 14th, 1961, aged 85.
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17/03/2020

MAUD GONNE'S MEN

06/03/2019

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Issue 107, January 2019
Essays
James Joyce’s strategy was to write as an exile from Ireland. That this exile should follow him into eternity was not part of the plan. In the early years after his death the Irish authorities displayed great hostility towards him. That has changed. Is it time to think of bringing his body home?
http://www.drb.ie/blog/writers-and-artists/2018/12/13/come-back-to-erin-
Anthony J Jordan writes: In June this year President Michael D Higgins paid a historic visit to Fluntern Cemetery in Zurich, where James Joyce is buried. He thanked the Swiss city for maintaining the grave “today and all the days since the 1940s”. A week later, at a Bloomsday event at Áras an Uachtaráin, the president returned to the subject of Joyce, saying You are all so, and spoke of the debt Ireland owes him. Anthony J Jordan’s book dealing with this subject is titled Maud Gonne’s Men published by [email protected]

09/08/2016

This is a podcast of the keynote lecture about the Garrison at Jacob's Factory during Easter Rising 1916, delivered on Easter Monday 2016 on the site of the Jacob's Biscuit Factory by Anthony J. Jordan.

13/11/2014

I was at London University on Friday 31 Oct speaking about the links between James Joyce and Arthur Griffith and the reasons why Griffith features throughout Ulysses. the Sunday Indo of 2/11/14 carried a summary of my paper.Why Joyce put Griffith in 'Ulysses'
Arthur Griffith features in James Joyce's Ulysses, and they both forged in the smithy of their souls their own visions of a new Ireland, writes Anthony J Jordan
Anthony J Jordan
Published 02/11/2014 | 02:30

Sunday Independent. 2/11/2014

The Institute of English Studies (School of Advanced Study, University of London) honoured Anthony J Jordan's book 'Arthur Griffith with James Joyce & WB Yeats' with a symposium at Senate House, Bloomsbury, last Friday and yesterday.


Arthur Griffith
James Joyce
Though Arthur Griffith features throughout Ulysses, this fact does not register with many readers of the novel: this may be because most do not know about Griffith or his 20-year association with James Joyce.

Griffith was an Irish journalist who edited the Dublin-based The United Irishman newspaper. In 1901, Joyce wrote a critical article for his university magazine on WB Yeats' Irish Literary Theatre. Publication was denied, so Joyce sent it to various newspapers.
The only paper to give it notice was The United Irishman. Griffith himself wrote a piece saying "…I have failed to find any heresy, blasphemy, immorality or sedition in this pamphlet… Mr James Joyce writes on the ILT, and I do not agree with his criticism of it. But why the censor strove to gag Mr. Joyce is to me as profound a mystery as to why we should grow censors in this country. Turnips would be more useful. I hope this little pamphlet will have a large sale".
Thus Griffith was the first person to introduce Joyce to the Irish public on November 2, 1901. Joyce did not thank him for it, and within a few years he greatly annoyed Griffith, who had just published a commemorative book of poems by the late Willie Rooney, who had been Griffith's friend. Joyce reviewed the book from Paris and savaged it, writing, "Little is achieved in these verses, because the writing is so careless, and is so studiously mean…They were written it seems, for a paper and societies week after week and bear witness to some desperate and weary energy.
"But they have no spiritual and living energy, because they come from one in whom the spirit is in a manner dead, or at least in its own hell, a weary and foolish spirit, speaking of redemption and revenge, blaspheming against tyrants and going forth full of tears and curses, upon its infernal labour".
Griffith retorted by using Joyce's article as an advertisement for the book in the following week's paper, adding the one word he claimed Joyce was afraid to utter i.e. patriotism.
In exile Joyce's main intellectual contact with Ireland was Griffith's United Irishman and later his Sinn Fein newspaper. His brother Stanislaus said "The United Irishman was the only paper in Dublin worth reading, and in fact he read it every week".
In 1904 Griffith published a seminal pamphlet called The Resurrection of Hungary in which he set out a programme for Ireland to become independent of the British Empire. In 1905, Griffith founded an organisation named Sinn Fein. Within 17 years Griffith would became President of a free Irish parliament in Dublin.
James wrote to Stanislaus of Griffith on September 25, 1906 that "so far as my knowledge of Irish affairs goes, he was the first person in Ireland to revive the separatist idea on modern lines nine years ago. He wants the creation of an Irish consular service abroad, and of an Irish bank at home. What I don't understand is that apparently while he does the talking and the thinking, two or three fatheads like (Edward) Martyn and (John) Sweetman don't begin either of the schemes".
On April 24, 1907 James told Stanislaus that he thought Griffith unassuming and sensible and supported his call for an economic boycott of Britain. He wrote "The Sinn Fein policy comes to fighting England with the knife and fork… the highest form of political warfare I have heard of".
James Joyce had his Dubliners finished in 1905, but could not get it published, despite valiant efforts. In desperation, he wrote to Britain's King George V in August 1911 seeking an adjudication that he had not insulted the memory of his father Edward VII in one of the stories. Later in 1911 Joyce sent a challenging letter to Irish newspapers about the historical "suppression" of Dubliners. Griffith, who understood Joyce's tactic, was the only editor to risk libel action by publishing the letter in full, in Sinn Fein on September 2.
Joyce made his final visit to Ireland in 1912 to try again to have Dubliners published. He met with unyielding opposition from George Roberts of Maunsel publishing house. Among those he called on was Arthur Griffith. On August 26 he wrote from Dublin to his brother Stanislaus, "… I went then to Griffith who received me very kindly and remembered my letter [17/8/1911 in Sinn Fein]. He says I am not the first person from whom he has heard this story. He says Roberts has been playing that game for years. He says the idea of Maunsel suing me is simple bluff and believes that they will not come into court and that if I get a strong solicitor on my side they will yield. He gave me a note to a first-class solicitor in Westmoreland St. He asked me to send him copies of my articles in Il Piccolo della Sera".
During that visit, James told Griffith that he realised Griffith was seeking to free the Irish people economically and politically and that he, Joyce, was seeking to liberate them spiritually in his novel. As Richard Ellmann observes, "Joyce was pleased to be treated as a man having a common cause, though working in a less obviously political medium. For he had remained faithful to his goal of creating new Irishmen and Irishwomen through the honesty and scorching candour of his writing. Ulysses creates new Irishmen to live in Griffith's new State". Indeed Andrus Ungar's book Joyce's Ulysses as National Epic: Epic Mimesis and the Political History of the Irish Nation State, sees Ulysses as responding to the Irish Literary Revival's expectation that a native epic would crown Ireland's literary achievements and to the country's imminent independence under Sinn Fein.
When Ulysses was finally published on February 2 1922, Griffith was the only contemporary politician featured along with his Resurrection of Hungary and Sinn Fein. Joyce was briefly exhilarated at the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922, and took satisfaction in the fact that, at the very time that he was giving his country a new conscience by completing Ulysses, his old associate Arthur Griffith was taking office as its first President. Joyce wished to salute Griffith's at-last successful efforts and the many references to Griffith in Ulysses are more than coincidence. For a moment it seemed that the two events were allied, that Ireland could be a nation once again in terms of both spiritual and political emancipation.

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