Jeffrey Kral
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James Joyce in Paris
The Collection of Dr. Gregory R. Bonomo
The Collection of Dr. Gregory R. Bonomo
Lot 139
JOYCE'S FIRST EXTANT SOLO PUBLICATION. JOYCE, JAMES. 1882-1941. The Holy Office. [Trieste: Printed by L. Smolars, May/June 1905].
31 March – 8 April 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, New YorkSold for US$24,320 inc. premium
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JOYCE'S FIRST EXTANT SOLO PUBLICATION.
JOYCE, JAMES. 1882-1941. The Holy Office. [Trieste: Printed by L. Smolars, May/June 1905].
Broadside, 289 x 221 mm, on white wove paper, watermarked "L.P./ Mercantil Eagle Paper," signed in bold type "James A. Joyce" at foot, clean copy, small stain to lower margin, custom cloth folder, with windowed sleeve underneath upper cover, morocco title label.
A FINE COPY OF JOYCE'S EARLIEST AUTONOMOUS PUBLICATION, preceded only by the juvenile broadside Et Tu Healy, of which no copy is known. ONLY 100 COPIES PRINTED. The poem had been written in Dublin in the summer of 1904 before Joyce and Nora's elopement to the Continent, but was rejected by Constantine Curran, another Joyce rival and editor of the University College magazine St. Stephen's. Joyce then undertook to publish the broadside himself, but when the Dublin printer asked him to pay for the broadsheets and to collect them, he could not find the money and by November 1904 the project had been abandoned (Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, 1982, p.167). Apparently pulped by the printer, no copy of the Dublin Holy Office has ever been recorded. In March 1905, Joyce found his circumstances improved when he was transferred to the Berlitz school in Trieste. So, undeterred, he arranged on May 23, 1905, to have the "city's most famous printers," Ludovico Smolars, to set 100 copies at his own expense. Joyce sent half the copies to his brother Stanislaus in Dublin for distribution to "all the interested parties" at the start of June (Gilbert, Letters, vol 2, p 90-91).
Written in the persona of "Katharsis-Purgative", the poem is a fierce attack on members of the Irish Literary Revival and other literary compatriots, and a declaration of his own alternative aesthetic. Richard Ellmann describes it as Joyce's "first overt, angry declaration that he would pursue candor while his contemporaries pursued beauty... with quick thrusts he disposes, more or less thoroughly, of his contemporaries. Yeats had allowed himself to be led by women; Synge writes of drinking but never drinks; Gogarty is a snob; Colum a chameleon, Roberts an idolator of Russell, Starkey a mouse, Russell a mystical ass... Joyce was determined to hold his mirror up to his friends' faces" (Ellmann, op.cit.). This did not prevent Joyce from sending copies to Russell, Gogarty and some of the others. Slocum & Cahoon A2. Additional bibliographic information provided via email with Luca Crispi.
Broadside, 289 x 221 mm, on white wove paper, watermarked "L.P./ Mercantil Eagle Paper," signed in bold type "James A. Joyce" at foot, clean copy, small stain to lower margin, custom cloth folder, with windowed sleeve underneath upper cover, morocco title label.
A FINE COPY OF JOYCE'S EARLIEST AUTONOMOUS PUBLICATION, preceded only by the juvenile broadside Et Tu Healy, of which no copy is known. ONLY 100 COPIES PRINTED. The poem had been written in Dublin in the summer of 1904 before Joyce and Nora's elopement to the Continent, but was rejected by Constantine Curran, another Joyce rival and editor of the University College magazine St. Stephen's. Joyce then undertook to publish the broadside himself, but when the Dublin printer asked him to pay for the broadsheets and to collect them, he could not find the money and by November 1904 the project had been abandoned (Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, 1982, p.167). Apparently pulped by the printer, no copy of the Dublin Holy Office has ever been recorded. In March 1905, Joyce found his circumstances improved when he was transferred to the Berlitz school in Trieste. So, undeterred, he arranged on May 23, 1905, to have the "city's most famous printers," Ludovico Smolars, to set 100 copies at his own expense. Joyce sent half the copies to his brother Stanislaus in Dublin for distribution to "all the interested parties" at the start of June (Gilbert, Letters, vol 2, p 90-91).
Written in the persona of "Katharsis-Purgative", the poem is a fierce attack on members of the Irish Literary Revival and other literary compatriots, and a declaration of his own alternative aesthetic. Richard Ellmann describes it as Joyce's "first overt, angry declaration that he would pursue candor while his contemporaries pursued beauty... with quick thrusts he disposes, more or less thoroughly, of his contemporaries. Yeats had allowed himself to be led by women; Synge writes of drinking but never drinks; Gogarty is a snob; Colum a chameleon, Roberts an idolator of Russell, Starkey a mouse, Russell a mystical ass... Joyce was determined to hold his mirror up to his friends' faces" (Ellmann, op.cit.). This did not prevent Joyce from sending copies to Russell, Gogarty and some of the others. Slocum & Cahoon A2. Additional bibliographic information provided via email with Luca Crispi.