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V.A.1.b.i

Later Ulysses Typescript: “The Beach Schema” (1921)1

Material Description

The manuscript consists of 4 sheets of black ribbon top copy typescript on unlined paper unevenly pasted together to form a scroll, with typescript only on the recto of each sheet and some vertical lines in pencil on the 2nd and 3rd sheets.

Title

“U L Y S S E S” was typed in the top center margin of the 2nd sheet.

Measurements

Each sheet measure approximately 20.5 x 23.3–26.5 cm. and together the scroll now measures approximately 20.5 x 96.6 cm.

Contents

Two distinct typescript schemata of the 18 episodes of Ulysses in English were prepared at Joyce’s instructions, both in November 1921. This manuscript is copy of the later typescript schemata (for further information, see Notes below).

Dating

The manuscript was typed in late November 1921.

Other Markings

The presentation in Joyce’s hand in black ink in the lower right corner of the scroll reads: “Given to Sylvia Beach | 2 February 1922 | Paris | James Joyce”.

Publication

This manuscript has been reproduced on JJA 12.174b.

Notes

While correcting page proofs for the last four episodes of Ulysses , Joyce had at least 9 copies of two separate versions of the typescript schemata made in November 1921.2 The impetus to produce the first English version of the schema was to assist Valery Larbaud as he prepared for his public lecture on Ulysses , the “séance consacrée a James Joyce,” on Wednesday, 7 December 1921, at Adrienne Monnier’s La Maison des Amis des Livres (see Joyce to Larbaud; Ellmann dates the letter as “about 15 November 1921”; LIII 53). The impetus for the later typescript version was both to assist Jacques Benoist-Méchin in his translation of “Penelope” into French for the Larbaud séance and to augment the first typescript schema (also see LIII 53).

The following is a census of all the known original Ulysses typescript schemata:

Earlier Typescript Schemata: Prepared by early November 1921
Manuscript Present Location
Valery Larbaud Larbaud Archive, Vichy
Harriet Shaw Weaver–Paul Léon National Library of Ireland MS 36,639/06
Later Typescript Schemata: Prepared by late November 1921
Manuscript Present Location
Sylvia Beach 1 Buffalo MS V.A.1.b.1
Sylvia Beach 2 Buffalo MS V.A.1.b.2
Sylvia Beach 3 Buffalo MS V.A.1.b.3
Stuart Gilbert HRC, Austin
HRC 2 HRC, Austin3
Auguste Morel–Quentin Keynes Private Collection
Benoist-Méchin–Stanislaus Joyce Private Collection

Until the discovery of the National Library of Ireland’s Weaver–Léon schema in 2002 and subsequent research in the Larbaud collection, it was not known that two distinct versions of the 1921 typescript schemata had been made. Furthermore, as late 2000 only two copies of the “later 1921” typescript schemata were known to exist. Both of these copies were in institutional hands and had been reproduced in the JJA in 1977 (12.174a and 12.174b); that is, only the Stuart Gilbert copy and Beach’s copy 1.4

These surviving schemata were typed on at least two different typewriters (therefore separately) and were usually produced with more than one bottom (carbon) copy. Except for V.B.1.b.iii, the schemata were pasted together horizontally from four (and sometimes five) unlined sheets to create long sheets that resemble scrolls. Notably, none of these copies are exactly identical; each has some different mistypings (or misspellings) as well as different variations in layout.5 Nonetheless, some of the copies of the later 1921 typescript schemata seem to have been made from one another, though there is not enough evidence to adequately disentangle their complex textual and bibliographical relationships.

The following is a preliminary collation of the variants between the copies of the later 1921 schemata that have been examined to date:

Variant MS V.A.1.b.1 b.2 b.3 HRC 1
Lotus Eaters [2 words] • •
Organ [no colon marks for first 3 episodes] • •
Kidney [capitalized] • •
eye,nose [no space after comma] •
eye, nose [space after comma] • • •
Locomotor apparatus [second word tabbed under the “c”, not the second “o”] • •
Flesh [capitalized] •
Thelogy • •
the^o^logy [“o” added] •
Botany, chemistry [initial capital and space after comma] • •
botany,chemistry [no capital letters and no space after comma] •
: — [colon before dashes under “Art” for “Penelope”] • •
:: [double colon marks under “Colour” for “Ithaca”] •
Stratford,London [no space after comma] •
: [colon before each entry under “Technic”] • •
narrative (nature) [“nature” instead of “mature”] •
Buck Malligan • • • •
Deasy : • •
Deasy . • •
Kervin Egan • • • •
Nenelaus • • •
The Nymph – [dash rather than full stop] • •
Elpenos • • •
Agamemnon:Ajax [no Mentor] • • •
Bella: [no space before colon] • • •
Eurymachus [without open parenthesis • •
No Ulysses heading •

Beach had the binder tip this inscribed copy of the schema (V.B.1.b.i) into her copy No. 2 of Ulysses ; it is also part of her Joyce Collection at Buffalo. The schema was removed and housed separately for conservation purposes in 2002, though a portion of the first sheet is still tipped into Ulysses between pp. [734] and [735].

  1. See [Sylvia Beach], Catalogue of a collection containing manuscripts & rare editions of James Joyce, a few manuscripts of Walt Whitman and two drawings by William Blake, belonging to Miss Sylvia Beach and offered for sale at her shop, Shakespeare and Company, 12, rue de l’Odéan, 12 Paris-VIe (Paris: Shakespeare & Company [1935]), p. 3, item 1.b.
  2. Several other scribal copies based on the typescript schemata are known to exist both in institutional and private collections.
  3. This bottom (carbon) copy of the later schemata was acquired prior to 1961. It was not recorded in the JJA. A cursory examination made in February 2005 suggests that it may be similar (and possibly identical) to the Beach 1 copy.
  4. The Herbert Gorman–H.K. Croessmann copy is now known to be a derivative copy that was clearly intended to mimic both the earlier and later 1921 typescript schemata versions in layout and content (including some of the errors), but it was prepared with another typewriter, most likely at a later date and from one of the copies of the later 1921 schemata. It was reproduced on JJA 12.174a. For further details about the various copies, see Marvin Magalaner, ed., A James Joyce Miscellany: Second Series (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1959), between pp. 48–49.
  5. So far it has not been possible to determine whether these typescript copies were made from the same primary source, from another source or from one of the other typescript versions.