Hesburgh Libraries

This spotlight exhibit celebrates the publication of James Joyce’s groundbreaking novel,* Ulysses*. The novel was published by bookseller Sylvia Beach, the American owner of Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company. The first printed copies arrived in time for Joyce’s fortieth birthday, February 2, 1922.

Already banned from importation to the United States, the distribution of copies of that first edition is in itself an interesting story.

Now considered by many to be the most important modern novel, this centenary gives us an opportunity to celebrate its publication.

The semester-long exhibit consists of the earliest editions of Joyce’s Ulysses held in the Hesburgh Libraries Special Collections: the first edition (1922) published by Beach’s Shakespeare and Company, along with the first English edition (1922) published by Harriet Weaver’s Egoist Press. Also on display is a magazine, Two Worlds Monthly, along with an “International Protest” against the plagiarism carried out by that magazine.

This exhibit was curated by Aedín Ní Bhróithe Clements, Irish Studies Librarian.

All exhibits are free and open to the public during business hours.