VI.H.3.
*VI.H.3 [VI.G.3]: "Work in Progress"/Finnegans Wake Page Proofs: Specimen Page Proof "R" of Finnegans Wake I.1 and III.3 (1931):
Material Description and Collation
The manuscript is 1 sheet of cream-white laid paper, which is heavier than MSS VI.H.1 and H.2, printed on both sides in black ink, with no corrections or revisions. It contains 2 conjugate leaves, folded in the center vertically, with 3 pages of printed text: p. [135] reads "Specimen R, MacLehose, 454 pages | September 21, 1931", pp. "136" and "137" contain text for Finnegans Wake, and p. [138] is blank.
Measurements
The manuscript measures 24.3 x 30.6 cm. The text blocks measure 17.2 x 9.8 cm.; the text block of the limited first edition measures 17.4 x 10.2 cm.
Pagination
Although the text is not continuous, the two center pages are (notionally) numbered "136" and "137" in the bottom center margin; the other pages are not numbered.
Contents
The manuscript is an even later specimen page proof setting for Finnegans Wake, and was set by Faber & Faber’s printers, R. MacLehose and Company Limited, Glasgow: it is labeled " Specimen R". The text was set from unrevised copies of transition 1 (09.21–10.16 and 10.29–33; April 1927) and transition 15 (214.01–12; February 1929), which were presumably selected at random by the publisher or the printers; see Finnegans Wake 003.19–004.17, 004.34–005.01, and 499.21–32. On this manuscript the text from transition 1 continues halfway through the seventh line on p. "137"; that text ends mid-word in mid-line, and then the setting continues without any break on the same line with the text from transition 15.
There are 40 lines of text on pp. "136" and "137". According to the printer, if the work were set in this font at this point size, they estimated the book would have comprised 454 pages.
Dating
The manuscript is dated "September 21, 1931" by the printer.
Publication
The printed pages of this manuscript have been reproduced on JJA 61.664–666.
Notes
According to T.S. Eliot, Faber and Faber had the printers set up these two pages in "eleven different types" (Buffalo MS Eliot to Joyce, no. 20; 20 August 1931), only three of which specimen proofs are known to be extant (Buffalo MSS VI.G.1–3).