Details
JOYCE, James (1882-1941). Ulysses, acoustic disk of Joyce reading the Aeolus passage from Ulysses. Nogent-sur-Marne: French HMV for Sylvia Beach (Shakespeare and Company, Paris), [1924].
12 in. acoustic recording, single-sided pressing, 78 RPM, white label, SIGNED ON LABEL BY JOYCE and dated Paris 27 November 1924. Modern paper sleeve. Mint condition.
ONE OF 30 PRESSINGS MADE OF JOYCE'S ONLY RECORDING OF ULYSSES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Sylvia Beach recounted the circumstances of the making of this recording in her history of her remarkable publishing enterprise, Shakespeare and Company. As the original publisher of Ulysses in 1922, Beach approached French HMV, who agreed to make the recording but as a private venture for Beach. It was made at her expense and was not listed in the HMV catalogue. Joyce himself was eager to have it made, and chose the Aeolus episode as the only passage which he considered "'declamatory' and therefore suitable for recital." Joyce in fact found the recording process difficult, and it required a number of readings. In the end, Beach concluded "the Ulysses record is a wonderful performance."
The recording of Ulysses was not a commercial venture at all. Only 30 pressings of the record were made, and it was never available on the market. Beach gave most of the 30 pressings to Joyce for distribution to family and friends. Beach did not preserve the master, as she later regretted, and retained only one or two pressings of the record for herself; no other recordings of Ulysses were made by Joyce.
VERY RARE. Four pressings survive in institutions: London, National Sound Archive (C.K. Ogden's pressing); Paris, Phonotèque Nationale (given by Beach); Dublin, Trinity College; Cambridge Mass., Harvard University ("badly worn", according to Slocum and Cahoon). In addition, Slocum and Cahoon knew of 3 pressings in private hands and several broken or damaged copies. A pressing offered by Glenn Horowitz in New York in 1996 was signed by Beach with the claim that only 20 pressings were made, although Beach elsewhere stated that the number was 30. The only other recording made by Joyce was a commercial recording of Anna Livia Plurabelle, which went through 4 different pressings, beginning in 1928 and including later pressings by HMV, Argus Book Shop in Chicago, and Gotham Book Market in New York. Slocum and Cahoon, p.173; "extremely rare"; cf. Sylvia Beach, Shakespeare and Company, London: 1959.
12 in. acoustic recording, single-sided pressing, 78 RPM, white label, SIGNED ON LABEL BY JOYCE and dated Paris 27 November 1924. Modern paper sleeve. Mint condition.
ONE OF 30 PRESSINGS MADE OF JOYCE'S ONLY RECORDING OF ULYSSES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Sylvia Beach recounted the circumstances of the making of this recording in her history of her remarkable publishing enterprise, Shakespeare and Company. As the original publisher of Ulysses in 1922, Beach approached French HMV, who agreed to make the recording but as a private venture for Beach. It was made at her expense and was not listed in the HMV catalogue. Joyce himself was eager to have it made, and chose the Aeolus episode as the only passage which he considered "'declamatory' and therefore suitable for recital." Joyce in fact found the recording process difficult, and it required a number of readings. In the end, Beach concluded "the Ulysses record is a wonderful performance."
The recording of Ulysses was not a commercial venture at all. Only 30 pressings of the record were made, and it was never available on the market. Beach gave most of the 30 pressings to Joyce for distribution to family and friends. Beach did not preserve the master, as she later regretted, and retained only one or two pressings of the record for herself; no other recordings of Ulysses were made by Joyce.
VERY RARE. Four pressings survive in institutions: London, National Sound Archive (C.K. Ogden's pressing); Paris, Phonotèque Nationale (given by Beach); Dublin, Trinity College; Cambridge Mass., Harvard University ("badly worn", according to Slocum and Cahoon). In addition, Slocum and Cahoon knew of 3 pressings in private hands and several broken or damaged copies. A pressing offered by Glenn Horowitz in New York in 1996 was signed by Beach with the claim that only 20 pressings were made, although Beach elsewhere stated that the number was 30. The only other recording made by Joyce was a commercial recording of Anna Livia Plurabelle, which went through 4 different pressings, beginning in 1928 and including later pressings by HMV, Argus Book Shop in Chicago, and Gotham Book Market in New York. Slocum and Cahoon, p.173; "extremely rare"; cf. Sylvia Beach, Shakespeare and Company, London: 1959.