Sir, - Readers of great literature, admirers of creative genius all over the world may well wonder why the Estate of James Joyce and I have to date remained silent on the newest Ulysses controversy. The answer is simple. In spite of all our efforts since midMarch, the London and Dublin publishers of this so called "reader's edition" steadfastly refused to provide us with an advance copy of the text of this book.
It was finally pursuant to a court order on the afternoon of June 13th that five copies of the book were handed over to the Estate's representative. Since June 16th, when those directly concerned received their copies, we have been looking carefully over this volume's contents. A number of eminent Joyceans have joined us in this examination.
To have had the audacity, the effrontery to put the name James Joyce on this outrageous misrepresentation of Ulysses, my grandfather's unique masterpiece - often referred to as the novel of the century - is demeaning to his creative, imaginative genius. The integrity, the essence of James Joyce's innovative writing has been obliterated, most notably but, alas, by no means exclusively from the Penelope closing sequence - the Molly Bloom Monologue - which represents the revolutionary, continuous stream of consciousness first used by Edouard Dujardin. The foregoing has been destroyed by the addition, where there were none, of well over 750 apostrophes, dozens of hyphens/tirets and italicised words and phrases and this is merely "one" example of the many distortions.
One of the Joyceans who has gone through this volume has pointedly referred to it as "a blatant distortion of Joyce's artistic aims and achievement". In his view this so called "reader's edition" of Ulysses "certainly shows no respect at all, to say the least, for the artistic integrity of James Joyce's whole literary creation."
If this book is to continue to be sold, the name James Joyce must be eliminated, stricken from the dust jacket, cover and inside title pages of this edition. The Estate will spare no effort to achieve this aim.
Those who buy this book should realise that they are not purchasing James Joyce's Ulysses. In the action the Estate has undertaken, we are in no sense trying to censor scholars from expounding their theories but rather protecting a major work of art. It is our duty to protect readers from this type of charade; after all, over the years, this epic novel has become part of the heritage of the English language.
From something genial, Ulysses, which represents the highest standard of achievement in the world of letters, has been transformed into something banal and run of the mill.
The year 1997 marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company, Paris. On this occasion it is necessary to recall the book's complex, tortured history - its travels, trials and tribulations. For 14 long years this 20th century epic was banned de jure in Britain and de facto in Ireland. Early in 1923 498 copies were seized by customs at Folkestone and destroyed, not to mention what happened in the USA before Judge John M. Woolsey handed down his momentous decision on December 6,1933. AND NOW THIS.
One can only wonder where all this will lead; who and what the likely next candidates and targets for this type of mutilation will be. Dramatists, poets, novelists and shortstory writers - not forgetting painters - past, present as well as future, BEWARE!
What the Estate and the literary world are faced with today is not another "scandal of Ulysses", but is this not "The Rape of Ulysses"?! - Yours, etc.
Paris,
France.