$8,460
Description
Autograph letter signed, one page (postcard) – also addressed on the reverse in his own hand, 5.75 x 4 inch, from "2 Avenue Saint Philibert" (Joyce’s Paris apartment), dated 23.10.1931.
Addressed to British polymath C. K. (Charles Kay) Ogden, concerning "a very good notice" in The Spectator (a weekly British news magazine). Written and signed in blue ink: "James Joyce".
The item is attractively mounted (removable) for display with a portrait of Joyce (altogether 8.25 x 11.75 inch). It has a small tear on the lower right edge and a postal cancellation mark touching Joyce’s last name – overall in fine condition.
Excerpt from the Letter:
"Dear Ogden: I did not register the note as it was after office hours but I hope you got them. There is a very good notice […] in Spectator of 10 instant. You ought to see it and tell Henry […] about it."
Background
C. K. Ogden (1889–1957), an English linguistic psychologist best known for inventing Basic English, was contacted by James Joyce in the summer of 1929 to write an introduction to his soon-to-be-published Tales Told of Shem and Shaun.
Ogden agreed and invited Joyce to the Orthological Institute in Cambridge to record a reading. Joyce read an excerpt from Anna Livia Plurabelle, a section of his evolving work, Finnegans Wake.
According to Joyce biographer Richard Ellmann, due to Joyce’s failing eyesight, the text had been printed in large letters, but the studio lighting was so poor he still couldn’t read it. He was prompted in a whisper throughout the recording, which made the achievement all the more remarkable.
The Anna Livia Plurabelle section—later Chapter 8 of Book One—is widely praised as one of the most beautiful prose poems in the English language and among the most acclaimed parts of Finnegans Wake.
Purchase: James Joyce Autograph
$8,460
