James Joyce. A Lecture Delivered in Milan in 1927 by his friend Italo Svevo, And now translated by Stanislaus Joyce for James Laughlin as a keepsake for his friends and those of New Directions
Price: $175.00
Original Wrappers. Milan: Officine Grafiche "Esperia" 1950. First Edition. Near Fine / Dust Jacket Included.
Translated by Stanislaus Joyce. First edition, first printing. One of 1600 copies, 1500 of which were for New Directions, this being number 1307. Publisher's stiff cream wrappers, lettered in black; original pictorial dust jacket, with Man Ray's 1922 photo of Joyce head in hand to front panel, and a photo of Svevo looking at the camera to rear panel. Near fine book, with toning to page margins and to spine, and spine ends lightly wrinkled; very good dust jacket, with very shallow chipping to spine ends and light wear to edges, and a tiny closed tear to top of rear panel. Overall, a sturdy copy of this quaint Christmas keepsake. This volume presents the newly-translated text of Italo Svevo's heartwarming and thoughtful 1927 lecture on James Joyce. Svevo considers Joyce's experience in Trieste, where the two first met, while examining Joyce's body of work, particularly Ulysses. These friends met in 1907, when Ettore Schmitz-better known by his pseudonym, Italo Svevo-took English classes from Joyce, an expatriate 20 years his junior. The two developed a friendship largely built upon mutual support of each other's literary endeavors. It was Joyce who urged Svevo to continue writing, and Svevo who served as a primary model for Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. With the help of Joyce and his new literary fame, Svevo's most celebrated work, La Coscienza di Zeno, was published in 1923. Item #JJ047
