Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of its "Novel of the Century" exhibition, presenting 24 first editions of James Joyce's Ulysses, each inscribed by Joyce to a recipient figuring heavily in its composition, publication, distribution or promulgation.

The 24 copies on view have been generously loaned by institutions and private collectors worldwide. These presentation copies define the range of forces which converged to produce Ulysses: from patrons, publishers, printers and press to family members, fans and supporters. Some are inscribed to household names, like Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Others are to significant figures who remained so far behind the scenes as to have been virtually unknown, like Barnet Braverman, who smuggled forty copies of the first edition to its American subscribers. Together they capture each stage of the most difficult literary birth of the century. A companion catalogue detailing each association is available.

The exhibition and catalogue have been arranged by copy number: there were 1000 numbered copies printed in all, along with a handful of unnumbered press copies. We are fortunate to be able to present the foundational copies, numbers 1, 2 and 3. The National Library of Ireland has graciously loaned copy #1, inscribed by Joyce to Harriet Shaw Weaver, without whose substantial and unconditional financial support Ulysses would not have been possible. Copy #2, on loan from the State University of New York at Buffalo, is inscribed to Sylvia Beach who, selflessly and tirelessly, ushered the first edition into print. Copy #3, now part of a private collection in New York, is inscribed to Margaret Anderson, the editor of The Little Review, who threw herself and her journal full force behind the cause of Ulysses. After four issues serializing the novel were seized and burned by United States postal authorities, Anderson endured a now-famous obscenity trial which ultimately sank the magazine. These three copies give the back bone of the publication history of Ulysses. In combination with annotated review copies, copies inscribed to Beach.s mother, Joyce.s printer, patrons and potential supporters from various periods of the book.s evolution, they evoke the spirit of expatriate literary Paris in the 1920s.

The exhibition will feature a series of oil paintings reflecting the distinct style of each of the eighteen episodes of Ulysses, as well as several portraits of Joyce, executed by his great-grandnephew, Paul Joyce. A Dublin-born graduate from the National College of Art & Design, 27-year old Joyce has participated in many solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe. He completed a forty foot-long mural based on Ulysses for the James Joyce Centre in Dublin in 1996, and has drawn on that experience to create these paintings, making their first public appearance in our gallery.

Exhibition dates: November 11, 1998 through December 18, 1998

Gallery hours: Monday through Friday, 10-5, or by appointment.