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JOYCE TRIES TO BOOST HIS FAVORITE TENOR JOHN O'SULLIVAN. JOYCE, JAMES. 1882-1941. Typed Letter S...
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
New York, New York
Description
JOYCE TRIES TO BOOST HIS FAVORITE TENOR JOHN O'SULLIVAN. JOYCE, JAMES. 1882-1941. Typed Letter Signed ('James Joyce'), to Jacob Schwartz, regarding Irish tenor John O'Sullivan, 1 p, 8vo, Paris, January 15, 1930, on letterhead bearing the address '2, Square Robiac / 192 Rue de Grenelle' in blue ink, fold creases, edges with some chipping and small tears, scattered browning. Contained in terracotta-colored cloth binder with acetate-covered internal pocket. AN INTERESTING JOYCE LETTER ARRANGING SUPPORT FOR HIS FAVORITE IRISH SINGER, TENOR JOHN O'SULLIVAN. Joyce writes to bookseller Jacob Schwartz saying '... I have written to Lady Cunard and she is sending over a person to hear Sullivan. Can you send me six copies each of the following papers if they contain notices of Sullivan? ...' Joyce was a great advocate of O'Sullivan, and felt the singer was underappreciated by the opera world. Stuart Gilbert's diary noted 'J.J. is now all Sullivan.... What wirepulling!.... He does no other work apparently ... has done none for a month, than to boost Sullivan in whom he sees what he would like to have been.' (Reflections on James Joyce: Stuart Gilbert's Paris Journal, 1993). Silvia Beach also noted Joyce's obsession with the singer: 'He attended every performance of Guillaume Tell, applauded Sullivan exuberantly from his seat in the front row, and got up to call him back many times.... Joyce filled the theater with Sullivan's admirers, and of course with his own admirers.... Sullivan's cause became an obsession, and the more he failed the more he persisted in his efforts.' (Shakespeare and Company, 1959). Joyce also conspired to draft Nancy Cunard's mother, Lady Cunard, a well-connected supporter of music, into the effort to boost O'Sullivan's career, hoping she could convince her friend, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham (founder of the London Philharmonic), to attend a concert by O'Sullivan and presumably to be impressed by his singing. Jacob Schwartz was a Brooklyn native, who lived briefly in Paris in the late 1920s and opened Ulysses Bookshop in London around 1930. He met Joyce in 1929 while the writer was staying in London, and went on an expedition to Dublin to purchase Joyce-related documents and memorabilia to sell in his bookshop. He pursued Joyce manuscripts, letters, and rare editions rather aggressively, while still maintaining a cordial relationship with Joyce himself. Many of the most important Joyce material passed through Schwartz's hands before landing in significant public and private collections. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing
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JOYCE TRIES TO BOOST HIS FAVORITE TENOR JOHN O'SULLIVAN. JOYCE, JAMES. 1882-1941. Typed Letter Signed ('James Joyce'), to Jacob Schwartz, regarding Irish tenor John O'Sullivan, 1 p, 8vo, Paris, January 15, 1930, on letterhead bearing the address '2, Square Robiac / 192 Rue de Grenelle' in blue ink, fold creases, edges with some chipping and small tears, scattered browning. Contained in terracotta-colored cloth binder with acetate-covered internal pocket. AN INTERESTING JOYCE LETTER ARRANGING SUPPORT FOR HIS FAVORITE IRISH SINGER, TENOR JOHN O'SULLIVAN. Joyce writes to bookseller Jacob Schwartz saying '... I have written to Lady Cunard and she is sending over a person to hear Sullivan. Can you send me six copies each of the following papers if they contain notices of Sullivan? ...' Joyce was a great advocate of O'Sullivan, and felt the singer was underappreciated by the opera world. Stuart Gilbert's diary noted 'J.J. is now all Sullivan.... What wirepulling!.... He does no other work apparently ... has done none for a month, than to boost Sullivan in whom he sees what he would like to have been.' (Reflections on James Joyce: Stuart Gilbert's Paris Journal, 1993). Silvia Beach also noted Joyce's obsession with the singer: 'He attended every performance of Guillaume Tell, applauded Sullivan exuberantly from his seat in the front row, and got up to call him back many times.... Joyce filled the theater with Sullivan's admirers, and of course with his own admirers.... Sullivan's cause became an obsession, and the more he failed the more he persisted in his efforts.' (Shakespeare and Company, 1959). Joyce also conspired to draft Nancy Cunard's mother, Lady Cunard, a well-connected supporter of music, into the effort to boost O'Sullivan's career, hoping she could convince her friend, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham (founder of the London Philharmonic), to attend a concert by O'Sullivan and presumably to be impressed by his singing. Jacob Schwartz was a Brooklyn native, who lived briefly in Paris in the late 1920s and opened Ulysses Bookshop in London around 1930. He met Joyce in 1929 while the writer was staying in London, and went on an expedition to Dublin to purchase Joyce-related documents and memorabilia to sell in his bookshop. He pursued Joyce manuscripts, letters, and rare editions rather aggressively, while still maintaining a cordial relationship with Joyce himself. Many of the most important Joyce material passed through Schwartz's hands before landing in significant public and private collections. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing
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![JOYCE, JAMES. 1882-1941. James Clarence Mangan. London: Ulysses Bookshop, [1930].](https://portal-images.azureedge.net/auctions-2025/bonham11511/images/ccd25b71-7d9b-4abf-bd7f-b2af001110d3.jpg?w=155&h=155)
