Joyce, James

New York. 1944. New Directions. 1st American Edition. Some Discoloration to Boards Along The Top and Bottom Edge, Otherwise Very Good in Worn Boards. No Dustjacket. Edited from the manuscript in the Harvard College Library, and introduction and editorial note, by Theodore Spencer. 234 pages. hardcover. Frontispiece portrait by Augustus John. keywords: Literature Ireland Joyce Ireland Literature. FROM THE PUBLISHER - STEPHEN HERO is an early version of Joyce's PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, probably completed about 1906. It is said that when the manuscript came back to Joyce after rejection by the twentieth publisher, he threw it into the fire, from which his wife was able to rescue only a portion. The 383 pages which first came to light were edited by the late Theodore Spencer and published by New Directions in 1944 through the courtesy of the Harvard College Library; they gave a long, connected section of the original - a sequence complete in itself. The first printing was immediately exhausted and a second, very large one lasted only several years. When twenty-five additional manuscript pages, forming a complete short incident, were found, New Directions held up reprinting so that they could be included. Edited by John J. Slocum and Herbert Cahoon, the Joyce bibliographers, who also contribute an interesting foreword, the new section is here printed with the permission of the Yale University Library. It throws new light on Joyce's attitudes and, like the rest, makes excellent reading in itself. inventory #4916