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Rare vinyl recording of James Joyce reading “Ulysses” goes up for auction in New York
The only known audio recording of James Joyce reading from Ulysses is to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York in June.
Recorded in 1924 and produced as a private venture by Sylvia Beach, who published the book two years earlier, the copies did not go on sale but were given to Joyce for distribution among family and friends. Two copies were also kept by Beach at her Shakespeare & Company bookshop in Paris.
The first mention of the recording seems to be in a 1935 Beach catalogue of Joyce material, where it was recorded with the following note: “Phonograph record of a reading by James Joyce from Ulysses pages 136-137, recorded by His Master’s Voice on one side only….Signed James Joyce, Paris, 17 November 1926 (date of recording). Only remaining copy of the 30 that were made.”
However, it is unknown if there were 30 or 20 copies made as Beach later wrote on the label of another example: “Only 20 copies were made of this record S.B,” writes the Irish Times.
In the recording, Joyce reads from a section of the Aeolus episode which takes place in the offices of the Freeman’s Journal – one of the main nationalist newspapers of the day. Joyce was forced to recite the whole section from memory due to his failing eyesight which led to a number of failed takes before a satisfactory recording was cut.
The 12-inch acoustic recording, signed and dated by Joyce, is being sold as part of an auction of rare books and literary memorabilia on 11 June, with a guide price of $15,000-$20,000. The recording was the first of 20/30 pressings, of which only two others are said to remain, and has apparently never been removed from its sleeve let alone played. It was described by Sotheby’s as a “true Joyce rarity.”
“This copy and the one offered in the Horowitz catalogue are the only examples we have been able to trace being offered in the last 30 years,” the auction house said.
“Our research indicates there are perhaps no more than two or three unbroken copies of this record extant and even shattered examples are almost unheard of in commerce,” reports the Irish Times.
Another Irish literary great represented in this year’s auction is Samuel Beckett, who was greatly influenced by Joyce and became friends with him in Paris in the late 1920s.
According to Reuters, the top estimate for Beckett’s “Murphy” manuscript currently lies at $2.13 million eclipsing even the $1.4 million which was paid for a partial draft of Joyce’s “Ulysses” sold at the start of the 21st century.
St. Patrick’s Day 17th March 2013 ” Irish quotes from scholars and Irish writers “
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QUOTATIONS & LITERARY EXTRACTS
Here you find some of the most famous quotes by the most famous Irish Writers,Irish Politicians & Scholars. Ireland has been noted over the centuries for its brilliant writers & literary scholars..enjoy their wit!
Ireland is where strange tales begin & happy endings are possible.
Charles Haughey
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I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
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I can resist everything but temptation.
Oscar Wilde
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The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs a lot less.
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I am a drinker with writing problems.
Brendan Behan
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Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.
Brendan Behan
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Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce
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Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America.
James Joyce
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Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.
James Joyce
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The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
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A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”
John F. Kennedy
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I think the Irish woman was freed from slavery by bingo….
They can go out now, dressed up, with their handbags and have a drink and play bingo. And they deserve it.”
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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Oliver Goldsmith
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Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
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When I die I want to decompose in a barrel of porter and have it served in all the pubs in Ireland.
J. P. Dunleavy
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I’m troubled, I’m dissatisfied. I’m Irish!
Marianne Moore
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No human being believes that any other human being has a right to be in bed when he himself is up.
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Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. Samuel Butler
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The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another. Samuel Johnson
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Every man of genius is considerably helped by being dead.
Robert Lynd
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All I ever seemed to get was the kind of girl who had a special dispensation from Rome to wear the thickest part of her legs below the knee.
Hugh Leonard
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There is an Irish way of paying compliments as though they were irresistible truths which makes what would otherwise be an impertinence delightful.
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A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other.
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One wonders in this place, why anyone is left in Dublin, or London, or Paris where it would be better, one would think to live in a tent or hut, with this magnificent sea and sky, and to breathe this wonderful air which is like wine in one’s teeth.
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May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
An old Irish proverb
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May those who love us, love us.
For those who don’t love us, May God turn their hearts.
And if God can’t turn their hearts, May he turn their ankles so we’ll know them by their limping!
An old Irish proverb
misebogland 