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Showing posts from April, 2017

Jan and Cora Gordon: Signatories to a 1927 Letter Protesting the Piracy of James Joyce's "Ulysses" in the USA

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Silvia Beach  (1887-1962) wrote a letter of protest, dated 2nd February 1927, against the planned publication in New York of an adapted version of James Joyce 's "Ulysses." She was American-born, but lived most of her life in Paris. She had published "Ulysses" there in 1922. Her Paris bookstore was called " Shakespeare and Company. " The issue being protested was the planned piracy of Joyce's work in a magazine edited by Samuel Roth . She wrote: " It is a matter of common knowledge that the ULYSSES of Mr. James Joyce is being republished in the United States, in a magazine edited by Samuel Roth, and that this republication is being made without authorization by Mr. Joyce; without payment to Mr. Joyce and with alterations which seriously corrupt the text. This appropriation and mutilation of Mr. Joyce's property is made under colour of legal protection in that the ULYSSES which is published in France and which has been excluded from t

"Phrynette's Letters to Lonely Soldiers" 1916 recommends "The Luck of Thirteen"

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A chatty review of " The Luck of Thirteen " by Marthe Troly-Curtin, appears in her "Phrynette's letters to lonely soldiers" segment in "The Sketch" of April 19th 1916. She enjoyed "the funny little thumbnail sketches (minute masterpieces by Jo)." and the "rich mine of humour" that they worked with "pen and ink and paint-brush." She quotes the observation in the book on the handsome Montenegrin peasanty: " We passed many peasants and had evidently enetered the land of Venus, for each one was more beautiful than the neighbour. Since Jabliak we had not seen an ugly man or woman, and the dignity of their carriage was exceeded only by the nobleness of their features. Ugly women must be valuable in those parts, and probably marry early - humans ever prize the rare above the beautiful. " Troly-Curtin also quoted the descriptions of Jan's elaborate protection against the rain and Jo's knitted con

The complete written works of Jan and Cora Gordon

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Here is a photograph of the complete written works of Jan and Cora Gordon, several in multiple copies (to capture interesting dedications and variations in cover art), together with associated literature, in a library in Malaysia. To learn more about their written output, see the group of galleries presented  here . Books set during WW1 are discussed here ; novels here ; books and articles on art here ; "Two Vagabonds" travel adventures here ; books set in the USA here ; and books set in Paris and London here . Of the art works visible in the photograph, the story of the Ghent watercolour can be found here ; the Almeria dwarfs here ; the Puerto Lumbreras guitar concert here ; and the posada at Lorca  here . The central picture above the bookcase shows my father as a baby at Mesylls ( see ).