Joyce, James

small 4to (158 x 110mm.), FIRST EDITION, one of 509 copies, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR ("To | Cyril Corrigan | James Joyce | London | 31.viii.925") on front endpaper, title page set within harpsichord design, original light green cloth lettered in gilt (second binding variant, with thick wove endpapers), collector's black cloth chemise and quarter black morocco slipcase, some very slight foxing to the text,

Sale, Bloomsbury, 28 May 1987, lot 97; Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, James Joyce Books & Manuscripts, 1996, item 12

Slocum & Cahoon A3

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A RARE INSCRIBED PRESENTATION COPY OF "CHAMBER MUSIC". It is now believed that only a small proportion of the first edition sheets were actually gathered and bound in 1907.

Cyril Corrigan was a classmate and early friend of Joyce's at University College Dublin and in early 1931 supplied the author's first biographer, Herbert Gorman, with very useful information. The correspondence in the Gorman papers at Southern Illinois University suggest that the two had an enduring acquaintance, and that the two met again in London two years after the date of the inscription in this copy of Chamber Music. Joyce had been in England during July and August of 1929, holidaying in Torquay, then visiting London to consult an ophthalmologist and to meet T.S. Eliot to discuss the forthcoming publication of Anna Livia Plurabelle (1930). In August he also made the celebrated recording at C.K. Ogden's Orthological Institute in Cambridge.

Joyce uses the name 'Corrigan' for a character in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man who steals and drinks the altar wine; Corrigan is the only one to choose flogging over expulsion as punishment for his crime.