Of Joyce and Orchises
Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Mon, 16 Mar 1998 20:01:41 -0800
I just found this and thought I'd share it with the Joyce fans on the
list. Towards the very end of the piece you'll see a reference to
Orchises (of "Hapworth" fame).
I'd also mention the bit about the new book of Pynchon's letters that I
saw in Salon but I figure that those who would be interested in such a
thing are probably already aware of it.
Malcolm
-----------------------
Is it in the public domain?
Ulysses has turned 75, but
not everyone is celebrating
NEW YORK (AP) -- This
year, James Joyce's
"Ulysses" officially turned 75. But for
publishers, the anniversary
of one of the century's greatest novels is
threatening to become a
very private party.
According to American copyright law, "Ulysses"
should now be
in the public domain, which applies to books that
have
completed their 75th calendar year since
publication. That means
anyone who wants to release "Ulysses" could do so.
Outside the
United States, where laws differ, rival editions
have appeared in
previous years.
Joyceans in the United States have waited a long
time for this.
There's still no agreement on the correct text of
"Ulysses," and
the copyright expiration means differing versions
now can be
made available. Several publishers, including W.W.
Norton &
Co. and Penguin Putnam Inc., are hoping to put out
books.
From the beginning, "Ulysses" has been among the
most acclaimed and controversial of novels. The
explicit language led to numerous censorship
problems, helping to delay its U.S. publication,
even
as its energetic irreverence and revolutionary
style
transformed 20th-century literature.
But the Joyce estate, which uses Random House as
its American
publisher, insists the copyright has not expired.
It claims the
starting date is not 1922, when "Ulysses" was
published in Paris,
but 1934, when the book was first legally
distributed in the
United States.
"They haven't taken any steps against me, but
we're all sort of
waiting for the other shoe to drop," said John
Kidd, head of the
James Joyce Research Center at Boston University
and the
editor for Norton's intended volume of "Ulysses."
Kidd and others say there is no 1934 copyright and
they back
up their argument with Joyce's own words. In a
letter sent to
Random House publisher Bennett Cerf, the author
wrote he was
unable to get a U.S. copyright because the law
requires "the
republication in the United States of any English
book published
elsewhere within a period of six months. ..."
The estate is run by Joyce's grandson, Stephen,
whose
protectiveness of the family legacy is reflected
in one of his
favorite sayings: "I am a Joyce, not a Joycean."
Several years
ago, Stephen Joyce infuriated Joyceans by
destroying a pile of
letters by the author's daughter, Lucia.
No legal action has yet been taken, but publishers
are not
anxious to risk anything. Oxford University Press
issued an
edition last year but has withdrawn it, pending a
resolution of the
copyright issue. Norton and Penguin Putnam also
are holding off
publication.
A book of energetic irreverence
From the beginning, "Ulysses" has been among the
most
acclaimed and controversial of novels. The
explicit language led
to numerous censorship problems, helping to delay
its U.S.
publication, even as its energetic irreverence and
revolutionary
style transformed 20th-century literature.
The novel still annually sells thousands of copies
and has
influenced countless writers, including William
Faulkner, Samuel
Beckett and William Burroughs. Joyceans around the
world
continue to celebrate June 16 as "Bloomsday,"
marking the date
Leopold Bloom made his famous fictional odyssey
around
Dublin.
While scholars commonly argue over the accuracy of
such
classic old texts as "Beowulf" and "The Canterbury
Tales," it's
unusual for a 20th-century book, especially one
published in the
author's lifetime, to lack a definitive edition.
But then "Ulysses" has an unusual publishing
history, thanks
mostly to Joyce, whose writing habits could be as
challenging as
his prose.
Joyce worked for several years on the novel, first
serialized in
1918 and issued in its entirety in France in 1922.
He was
constantly revising the manuscript, right up to
the final days
before publication. Notes were crammed in the
margins and his
linguistic innovations, such as removing
punctuation or running
several words together, were often lost on his
French-speaking
typesetters.
A lifetime of corrections
The first printing of "Ulysses" was filled with
mistakes. Despite
efforts by Joyce and others to amend the text
experts believe
they'll never produce an "accurate" version. Half
of the original
manuscript is lost and, because Joyce made so many
changes
over the years, it's virtually impossible to
figure out what he
wanted.
But what may seem like hairsplitting to the
average reader is the
stuff academic careers are made of. Scholars are
constantly
fighting over "Ulysses." (One Web site, fittingly,
is called "The
Joyce Wars.") In the mid-1980s, for example, a
German
academic named Hans Walter Gabler received
permission from
the Joyce estate to put out a "Critical and
Synoptic" edition, only
to have Kidd vehemently, and effectively,
discredit it.
"What he did was make as many changes as humanly
possible,
for the sake of making them" said Kidd, whose
criticisms
inspired many others to attack Gabler's
scholarship. "If he could
find a manuscript that said something different
from the original
book he made the change."
The best-selling version of "Ulysses" remains an
edition compiled
in 1961, two decades years after Joyce's death.
Now, Kidd has
his own version planned, and he says he's working
on a
CD-ROM deal with an unnamed "multibillion-dollar
corporation."
Another "Ulysses" contender is the small,
Virginia-based
Orchises Press. J.D. Salinger fans may recognize
Orchises as the
publisher that has yet to reissue an old Salinger
story promised a
year ago. Orchises, however, is currently offering
the Joyce
book. Press founder Roger Lathbury says he has
sold a small
number of mail order copies, mostly to academics.
"I suspect sooner or later I will hear an
imprecation of some kind
from the Joyce estate," said Lathbury, whose
publication of
"Ulysses" is a $75 hardcover facsimile of the
original 1922
printing.
"To intimidate somebody without any fact is simply
to bluff. I
want to know what facts he has. I'm not looking
for a court
battle; I just think there's no case. So maybe I'm
a fool, or
maybe I'm a courageous man. Maybe they're the same
thing."