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James Joyce Collection

 Collection
Identifier: PCMS-0020

Scope and Contents

Please see the collection website

Covering the entire span of his artistic life, the James Joyce Collection is the largest Joyce collection in the world and contains his private library, as described in Thomas Connolly’s The Personal Library of James Joyce: A Descriptive Bibliography (1955); 22 holograph drafts, over 11,000 typescript pages, and corrected galleys and page proofs for Ulysses (1922); approximately 60 notebooks, transcriptions, typescripts, galleys, page proofs, and the author’s copy with corrections of Finnegans Wake (1939); documents for A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Joyce’s lecture on Daniel Defoe; the notebook for Exiles; hundreds of letters between Sylvia Beach and Joyce; Beach’s printing records for the publication of Ulysses; John Quinn’s letters to Beach and Joyce regarding the trial over Ulysses and The Little Review; other Joyce and Beach correspondence; Joyce’s presentation copies to Beach; portraits and over 150 photographs of Joyce and his family; numerous personal artifacts owned by Joyce, and thousands of his newspaper clippings; and notebooks, sketchbooks, and letters by Joyce’s daughter Lucia Joyce. Supplementing the archive is a complete set of first editions, including all issues and states of every book published by Joyce, translations, a large number of his magazine appearances, and virtually all the literary criticism in book form on Joyce. Much but not all of the manuscript material has been described in Peter Spielberg’s James Joyce’s Manuscripts and Letters at the University of Buffalo: A Catalogue (1962).

Dates

  • 1900-1959

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English and French.

Terms of Access

James Joyce Collection, 1900-1959, is open for research.

Copyright

Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the University Archives before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Biographical Note

One of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, James Joyce (1882-1941) is the author of Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939).

Extent

22.25 Linear Feet (89 boxes)

Additional Description

Abstract

Please see the collection website

Covering the entire span of his artistic life, the University at Buffalo James Joyce Collection is the largest Joyce collection in the world and contains his private library; records documenting the writing of Ulysses (1922), Finnegans Wake (1939), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), and Exiles (1918) as well as the publication of Ulysses; correspondence (most significantly between Sylvia Beach and Joyce); portraits and photographs of the Joyce; and personal artifacts. The collection also includes notebooks, sketchbooks, and letters by Joyce’s daughter Lucia Joyce.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in twenty-two series:

  • I. Epiphanies
  • II. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  • III. Exiles
  • IV. Verses
  • V. Ulysses
  • VI. Finnegans Wake
  • VII. Criticism
  • VIII. Miscellaneous Notebooks
  • IX. Miscellaneous Manuscripts
  • X. Correspondence from James Joyce
  • XI. Correspondence to James Joyce
  • XII. Correspondence from Sylvia Beach
  • XIII. Correspondence to Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company
  • XIV. Correspondence from Imprimerie Darantiere to Sylvia Beach/James Joyce
  • XV. Correspondence of Lucia Joyce
  • XVI. Other Correspondents
  • XVII. Photographs and Portraits
  • XVIII. Miscellaneous Material Related to Joyce's Works
  • XIX. Miscellaneous James Joyce Material
  • XX. Miscellaneous Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company Material
  • XXI. Miscellaneous Lucia Joyce Material
  • XXII. Other Miscellaneous Material

Acquisition Information

Obtained in six installments:

1. Manuscript notebooks, family portraits, Joyce’s personal library, and other memorabilia donated by Margaretta F. Wickser in memory of her husband, Philip J. Wickser, arriving in the fall of 1950.

2 and 3. Letters, proofs, and errata donated in May of 1951 and December of 1959 by B. W. Huebsch.

4. Manuscripts, letters, and books purchased from Sylvia Beach in the winter of 1959, made possible by a gift from Constance and Walter Stafford.

5. The remainder of Beach’s Joyce collection was purchased after her death and arrived in 1962, thanks to the support of Constance and Walter Stafford, Mrs. Spencer Kittinger, and the Friends of the Lockwood Memorial Library.

6. 31 pages of 6 different transition galley proofs printed and revised from 27 May 1927 to June 1928 acquired from Maria Jolas in 1968.

Accruals and Additions

No further accruals are expected to this collection.

Alternate Forms

Many manuscripts and pieces of correspondence have been digitized for in-house access.

Physical Description

22.25 linear feet (89 boxes)

Processing Information

Processed by Poetry Collection staff.

Subjects

Related Names

Source

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Finding Aid for the James Joyce Collection, 1900-1959
Author
Finding aid prepared by James Maynard.
Date
2008
Description rules
Finding Aid Prepared Using Local Best Practices
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the The Poetry Collection Repository

http://library.buffalo.edu/pl/
Contact:
420 Capen Hall
Buffalo New York 14260-1674 US
716-645-2917
716-645-3714 (Fax)