Ulysses. Published for The Egoist Press London by John Rodker. Shakespeare & Co., Paris 1922. First English Edition (printed in France). Publisher’s original Greek blue wrappers title in white to upper cover. Sensitively rebacked, wrappers retaining their strong colour, contents pages bright & clean throughout. Housed in collector’s solander box. Publisher’s seven-page Errata compiled by Joyce, Harriet Weaver and John Rodker with 201 corrections, loosely inserted.

Limited Edition of 2000 Numbered Copies on handmade paper [this copy 1159]. 

“First English Edition,” but more precisely the second impression of the first edition, printed from the largely unaltered plates used for the first impression, and intended for distribution in Britain.

A longtime Joyce supporter, Harriet Weaver was determined to bring out her own edition of Ulysses. A socialist, she believed that her inheritance, ‘tainted by usury, was hers in trust,’ and had signed a sizeable inheritance over to Joyce. She sent Joyce a £200 advance for an English edition, which was published for the Egoist Press by John Rodker of Paris, and printed by Beach’s printer Maurice Darentiere from the same plates as the first edition. Rodker laid in eight pages of Errata listing the over 200 typographical errors.

Rodker’s edition includes the statement, ‘First Published by Shakespeare and Company, Paris: February 1922. Published By the Egoist Press, London: October 1922. . . . The Publishers apologize for the typographical errors, a list of which is appended.’ Beach’s dire predictions had been correct; the English edition was plagued by censorship difficulties. 500 copies were originally sent to America, but were reportedly seized or burned by U.S. government authorities. Copies of these volumes have resurfaced, however, and it is possible that the books were seized but not destroyed. John Rodker produced a January 1923 run to replace the missing copies, with the limitation notice ‘This edition of 500 copies is specially reprinted to replace those destroyed in transit to the USA.’ All but three replacements were burned by English customs authorities at Folkestone. 

It is quite rare for this format to survive intact & in such good condition, as the flimsy covers do not adequately support the volume’s mass, quickly disbinding and falling away from the fragile cords.