ULYSSES. Paris: Shakespeare & Co., 1922. First Edition. Pp 732. Bound in full crushed blue morocco boards, spine with raised bands, compartments with gilt lozenges, title lettered in white to second compartment; upper board with gilt ruled boarders, title lettered in white. Two foxing marks to lower portion of title page & verso; also to pages 450 & 451; otherwise the text in nice bright condition throughout; lacking the original wrappers.

One of 150 Large Paper Copies, on Vergé D’Arches Numbered 101-250. This Copy Number 141.

The first printing of Ulysses consisted of 1,000 copies, divided into three various limitations. The first 100 copies were printed on fine handmade paper, numbered 1-100, all signed by James Joyce. Copies 101-250 were also printed on handmade paper (Vergé D’Arches) , though of a lesser grade than the first 100. The final 750 copies were numbered 251-1,000, printed on the least expensive stock of paper, and like the Vergé D’Arches copies, were not signed by Joyce.

The book was scheduled for publication on February 2, 1922, Joyce’s fortieth birthday, but because of technical problems with printing the cover (which he wished to match in colour the blue of the Greek flag), only two copies were ready by that date. Joyce expressed his appreciation for the book in a note to Beach: ‘I cannot let today pass without thanking you for all the trouble and worry you have given yourself about my book during the last year.’ Beach later wrote of their respective celebratory moods: ‘Here at last was Ulysses, in a Greek blue jacket, bearing the title and the author’s name in white letters. Here were the seven hundred and thirty-two pages ‘complete as written’, and an average of one to half a dozen typographical errors per page.’ Soon after publication Joyce gathered together a list of errata. It was by no means complete.

According to Sylvia Beach’s Ulysses Notebook this copy was sold to a George Wythe, in March 25, 1922.

[Slocum & Cahoon A17].