ULYSSES by Joyce James - 1936

London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1936. First authorized English edition; one of 100 copies signed by Joyce (of a total edition of 1000) printed on mould-made paper bound in vellum. 8vo, luxuriously bound in a beautiful designed binding by Eric Gill of full vellum with his gilt decorations of a bow on the upper cover, and a gilt titled spine, t.e.g. Housed in the original publishers patterned boards slipcase. 766 pp. A very fine copy. One of the most handsome we have seen. VERY IMPORTANT LITERARY FIRST. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. This an extremely impressive copy of the first authorized English edition, signed by Joyce. IT IS ALSO THE FIRST EDITION of ULYSSES PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. The superb binding executed In full vellum has been especially designed for this great book. DESIGNS FOR THE BINDING, EXECUTED IN GILT WERE DESIGNED BY ERIC GILL.
The typeface is extremely attractive and very readable, the printing on fine paper makes the book unusually handsome and presents what is perhaps the most beautiful printing of ULYSSES ever accomplished.
Along with the text, there are a series of appendices attached including copies of the International Protest against the unauthorized and mutilated printings of ULYSSES done especially in the United States; a copy of the injunction issued to prevent Samuel Roth from continuing his piracies of ULYSSES; a copy of Joyce’s letter to Bennet Cerf concerning the promotion, legal fight and publication of ULYSSES on the author’s behalf; a copy of the decision of the US District Court which was rendered on December 6, 1933 which lifted the ban on ULYSSES and a copy of the subsequent decision of the US Court of Appeals rendered in August of the following year which upheld the original decision; a copy of the forward to the first American edition and a bibiography of the works of James Joyce.
ULYSSES can be viewed as the pinnacle of the Modernist movement, and its impact on all subsequent western literature is unmistakable. Such writers as Virginia Woolf, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Samuel Beckett, Malcolm Lowry, and Anthony Burgess have all paid tribute, consciously or unconsciously, to Joyce's influence. Burgess as well pronounced it the greatest single work in the English literature of this century, and he is not alone in that opinion.