A Suitcase-Load of Papers
Saturday, November 15th, 2008A few years ago I wrote about my visit to the James Joyce Foundation in Zurich. Now James Woodall, in an article for More Intelligent Life, writes about his, at the end of an article recounting his “tussle with James Joyce’s censor”:
The foundation’s proudest possession is a suitcase-load of papers–well beyond the reach of Stephen–donated in 2006 by a stepson of Giorgio’s (he married twice). These include 50 letters and 34 postcards by Joyce, as well as manuscript material relating to “Finnegans Wake” and some of his poetry. The original documents are locked away in a Zurich bank vault, but laser copies are available for visitors to read. It is profoundly moving to gaze at Joyce’s handwriting from the 1920s and 1930s, as well as his substantial sketches for the “Wake”. This was the closest I had ever got to him.
(Come to think of it, I’ve quoted Woodall before as well.)
