ULYSSES. Paris: Shakespeare & Co., 1922. First Edition. Pp 732. Bound in full vellum boards, title label in green leatherette lettered in gilt to spine, with publisher’s original blue upper wrapper lettered in white retained. Housed in pictorial Portuguese cork slipcase. Some scattered minor spotting to pages but overall a fine bright copy.

One of 150 Large Paper Copies, on Vergé D’Arches Numbered 101-250. This Copy Number 143.

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, and signed by Joyce. Copies 101-250 were also printed on handmade paper, though of a lesser grade than the first 100, and were not signed by Joyce. The final 750 copies were numbered 251-1,000, printed on the least expensive stock of paper, and like the previous limitation, 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.’ 

According to Sylvia Beach’s Ulysses Notebook this copy was sold to Miss A. Stuckslager in June 1st, 1922.

[Slocum & Cahoon A17]