JOYCE (JAMES)

Annotated typescripts from Finnegans Wake, [mainly Paris, 1936-37]

Footnotes

"strick struck strangling to merubmer": IMPORTANT WORKING TYPESCRIPTS FROM FINNEGANS WAKE, WITH JOYCE'S MANUSCRIPT GENEALOGIES AND A SIX-LINE ADDITION.

Joyce's additional paragraph in black ink is on f. 13v of the typescript: "strick struck strangling to merubmer by the cycl of the cruize who strungled Attahilloupa with what empoisoned El Monte de Zuma and failing that he was pallups barn in the Krumlin befodt he was popsoused into the vatercan, makes the holypolygon of the emt on the greaseshaper". This was incorporated in revised form in Faber's 1939 first edition text, at p. 339.

The composition of Finnegans Wake was as long and as convoluted as the text itself. After a year's break following Ulysses, in 1923 Joyce took the first steps towards his final novel with a 2-page sketch 'Roderick O'Conor', concerning the historic last king of Ireland cleaning up after guests by drinking the dregs of their dirty glasses. This piece would eventually become the conclusion of Part II Chapter 3 of Finnegans Wake - the same Part and Chapter as the present typescripts.

At this point of the work, we are in the tavern belonging to Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker: the radio is on, the children are studying upstairs, we learn how HCE met and married ALP, the tale of Buckley is introduced, HCE confesses his various crimes, the pub is closed, and a drunken HCE clears the bar, morphs into King Rory O'Connor, and passes out.

Our two typescripts cover some of the same passages but show substantial differences from one another, and from the first edition where they would become broadly pp. 332-367. ('Roderick O'Conor' is found at pp. 380.07–382.30.) During 1936 and 1937 when the present typescript was produced, Joyce was working with fair copies of his revised drafts, and employing various typists, both professionals and friends, to prepare typescripts.

Throughout the seventeen years that Joyce worked on the book, Finnegans Wake was published in short excerpts in a number of literary magazines, and in small book-form editions of certain chapters. Approximately two thirds of the present typescript, some 25 pages, was first published in a revised form as a fragment from Work in Progress in the Spring 1938 issue of transition.

DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT TYPESCRIPTS
(i) Prepared in December 1936. Corresponds to James Joyce Digital Archive draft entry II.3§2.2, and would become pp. 332.01-337.03 in the 1939 edition.

A heavily revised and expanded copy of this same typescript is part of the Harriet Shaw Weaver/James Joyce Collection at the British Library (BL ADD MSS 47479, fs. 189v-195r; JJDA draft entry II.3§2.2; see JJA vol. 54, pp. 309-317). Given the complexity of the alterations made on the BL copy, and the likely problems for Joyce's typists, he decided to copy out the next version in his own hand (BL ADD MSS 47479, ff. 199r-206r; JJDA draft entry II.3§2.*3).

The genealogies of "Finn" on f.27v and on the separate leaf appear to be based on reading notes, the source or sources of which have not been identified. In the more extended family tree, Joyce adds three further descendants and clarifies the relationship between Brian and Sitric: "Brian m. Sitric's mother", "Sitric m. Brian's daughter", etc. Joyce was inspired by the Celto-Nordic context of Finn, hero of the Ossianic cycle - but also by other echoes, such as the name of Nora's workplace when they first met (Finn's Hotel), and Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

(ii) Prepared in 1937. Corresponds to JJDA draft entry II.3§2.4/3.3/4.3/6.3, and would become pp. 332.01-354.06 and 355.08-367 in the 1939 edition.

A heavily revised and expanded copy is part of the Harriet Shaw Weaver/James Joyce Collection at the British Library (BL ADD MSS 47479, ff. 210r-219r / 220r-221r / BL 47480, ff. 22r-35v / ff. 180v-192r; see JJA 54.344-363, 55.040-068 and 55.308-193). The pencil pagination numbers here are in the same style and hand as BL 47479. Joyce's addition on p. 13v was copied by his close friend, helper, and amanuensis Paul Léon on BL 47479, f.221v, where it is crossed out, and then again on BL 47480, f.22v.

LOCATIONS OF OTHER TYPESCRIPTS
The vast majority of the materials (manuscripts, fair copies, typescripts, proofs etc) created by Joyce for Finnegans Wake from 1923-1939 are held in public libraries: the Poetry Collection at the University of Buffalo; the British Library; and smaller holdings at other depositories in America and Europe, including the Zurich Joyce Foundation.

A 1926 28-page typescript opening "River-run" appeared at auction in 1976 and again at The Garden sale in 1989 (Sotheby's, 9-10 November 1989, lot 212). We have traced no other Finnegans Wake typescripts at auction - making them extremely rare appearances on the market.