V.A.2.b
Later Second-Order Notebook for Drafts, Typescripts and Proofs (1921)1
Material Description and Collation
The manuscript is a notebook in Joyce’s hand in black ink, with notes variously crossed through in red, green or blue colored crayon. It consists of 20 leaves (40 pages) of ruled paper, with blue horizontal lines and a red vertical line in the left margin, of which 29 pages are inscribed and 11 are blank: pp. [7v], [8v], [9r], [9v], [10v], [11v], [16v], [17v], [18v], [19r] and [20r]. Presumably, the notebook originally had a cover but it was already detached and no longer with the manuscript when it was catalogued for the La Hune Exhibition in 1949.
In 1965, therefore after Spielberg’s cataloguing but prior to its reproduction in the JJA , the manuscript underwent protective treatment, though the details of this process still need to be fully ascertained. The manuscript was disbound and the sheets were separated into individual leaves that were then backed with conservation paper and further encased in an opaque material. The encasing sheets are slightly larger than the manuscript leaves (the latter are about 17.0 cm. wide, while the encasements are 19.0 cm.).2
The first and last leaves of the notebook (pp. [1] and [20]) were already particularly worn and damaged by 1962. The corners and edges of both leaves are partially missing and there are holes in the main portion of p. [20], all of which renders much of the text on these pages indecipherable (see Herring’s note on p. 118). There are also holes on pp. [2]–[6] that render some of those notes illegible as well as on pp. [17]–[19], though they do not affect the text. The conservators did not attempt to restore the manuscript, but the encasing material ensures that the paper is unlikely to deteriorate further.
The blank portions of the encasing leaves face the spine so that the leaves could be bound through just the encasements rather through the manuscript itself. The leaves were sewn with a single piece of string through three holes in the center spine into a binding with a blank, tan cover of a slightly heavier paper stock that measure 23.0 x 19.0 cm.
The manuscript is now housed in a sepia case, with cloth over boards, with brown felt on the interior. The covers of the case are blank, but the spine has a leather label attached that reads in gold gilt: “NOTES | FOR THE | EPISODES | – | JOYCE”, with a gold gilt decorative horizontal border at the top and bottom of the label.
This manuscript was conserved in a manner similar to the Portrait Essay and Sketch manuscript (MS II.A) and the Exiles notebook (MS III.A) after 1962 but prior to the Ulysses manuscripts below (MSS V.A.3–22) and the “Work in Progress” galley proofs (MSS VI.G).
Measurements
Each leaf measures 22.5 x 17.0 cm.
Contents
The manuscript contains lists of notes for various episodes of Ulysses that Joyce used to make insertions and additions to manuscript drafts, typescripts and proofs. On the other hand, p. [12v] is a draft of the additional text that Joyce recopied on Buffalo MS V.A.9, though there were probably intermediary drafts between the extant documents; Joyce used notes he had already gathered in this notebook to write this draft. The first extant draft usage appears on the Rosenbach manuscript of “Penelope,” though the insertions were probably made on one or more missing manuscripts between the earliest extant draft of the episode (NLI MS 36,639/14) and the Rosenbach draft.
| MS V.A.2.b Page | Heading or Contents | First Extant Draft Usage; Color Crayon |
|---|---|---|
| p. [1r] | “Penelope” (18) | Rosenbach “Penelope” MS; red |
| p. [1v] | [“Penelope” (18)] | Rosenbach “Penelope” MS; red & blue |
| p. [2r] | [“Penelope” (18)] | MS V.A.22; green |
| p. [2v] | [“Penelope” (18)] | Added to “Penelope” Rosenbach MS: red |
| p. [3r] | [“Penelope” (18)] | Second placards ; red |
| p. [3v] | [“Penelope” (18)] | First placards ; red |
| p. [4r] | “Eumeus” (16) | Typescript; green |
| p. [4v] | [“Eumaeus (16)] / “Pen” (18) | First placard s / First placards ; blue / green |
| p. [5r] | “Ithaca” (17) | First placards ; blue |
| p. [5v] | “Circe” (15) | Third placards ; green |
| p. [6r] | “Circe” (15) | MS V.A.20; red |
| p. [6v] | [“Circe” (15)] | First typescript overlay; green |
| p. [7r] | [“Circe” (15)] | First placards ; red |
| p. [7v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [8r] | “Nausicaa” (13) | First placards ; green |
| p. [8v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [9r] | Blank | NA |
| p. [9v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [10r] | “Wandering Rocks” (10) | Second placards ; red |
| p. [10v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [11r] | “Hades” (6) | Third placards ; red |
| p. [11v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [12r] | “Oxen of the Sun” (14) | First placard s; red and green |
| p. [12v] | [“Cyclops” (12)] | MS V.A.9; green |
| p. [13r] | ” Cyclops ” (12) | MS V.A.2.b, p. [12v]; red and green |
| p. [13v] | [“Cyclops” (12)] | MS V.A.2.b, p. [12v]; green |
| p. [14r] | “Eolus” (7) | Third placard s; red and green |
| p. [14v] | “Ithaca” (17) | First Typescript overlay; red |
| p. [15r] | “Ithaca” (17) | First Typescript overlay; red |
| p. [15v] | [“Ithaca” (17)] | First Typescript overlay; red |
| p. [16r] | “Scylla & Carybdis” (9) | Second placard s; red |
| p. [16v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [17r] | “Sirens” (11) | First placard s; red |
| p. [17v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [18r] | “Lestrygonians” (8) | Second placard s; red |
| p. [18v] | Blank | NA |
| p. [19r] | Blank | NA |
| p. [19v] | “Penelope” (8) | To be determined |
| p. [20r] | Blank | NA |
| p. [20v] | “Eventuali”3 | To be determined |
This later notebook is similar in kind and usage to the 3 other later Ulysses notebooks (NLI MSS 36,639/04, 36,639/05/A and 36,639/05/B)
Dating
Joyce compiled this notebook in the summer of 1921 in Paris along with NLI MSS 36,639/04, 36,639/05/A and 36,639/05/B.
Other Markings
At the time of conservation but before the encasement of the leaves, pp. [1r]–[20v] were marked “1”–”40″ in the upper right corner of the recto and in the upper left corner of the verso in pencil. There are rust stains from a paper clip on pp. [6v], [7r] and [20v].
Publication
The manuscript has been reproduced in color photo-facsimile on JJA 12.097–125. It has been transcribed and annotated in Phillip F. Herring (ed.), Joyce’s Notes and Early Drafts for “Ulysses”: Selections from the Buffalo Collection , (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977), pp. 37–118.
Notes
Unlike the contemporaneous NLI Ulysses notebooks, this manuscript was not transcribed by Joyce’s amanuensis, Mme France Raphael, in the “Work in Progress / Finnegans Wake ” notebook, Buffalo MS VI.C.7.
There is an index card with the manuscript that reads: “ms. taken to Chicago 4.30.65 | by Mr. Sy | for protective treatment” and then below it “IIA”.
- La Hune, item 252; Slocum and Cahoon, item E.5.b.i.
- The reproductions in the JJA were cropped around the manuscript pages and the conservator’s covers were not reproduced.
- Joyce also used this catch-all heading on the other contemporaneous late Ulysses notebooks (NLI MSS 36,639/04, 36,639/05A and 36,639/05B).