The Financial Dependency of James Joyce

1. The Financial Dependency of James Joyce Three Primary Causes

2. “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree”

3. “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree” • Joyce’s father, John, inherited land in Cork when he was 21, and held a steady job for the first 9 years of Joyce’s life. • For 10 years PRIOR to the loss of his job, he had moved his family several times, mortgaged his properties repeatedly, and sold much of his inheritance.

4. “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree” • “In the end, as the final tally of children became four boys, six girls, and three mis-births, there were no more babies, and after eleven mortgages, there was no more property. John Joyce filled his house with children and debts.”

5. “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree” • John arranged for James to attend Belvedere for free. • When James’s mother died, his father had to take out another mortgage to pay for her medical expenses.

6. “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree” • At Belvedere, James won prize money for academic competitions and quickly spent it. • In 1899, he earned one of his first payments for writing a review and spent the money on a trip to England with his father.

7. “The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree” • After the death of his mother, Joyce began drinking regularly. • As further testament to his inherited spending habits, in August, 1920 spent an extravagant amount of money, treating T. S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis to lunch.

8. “Stubborn as an Ox”

9. “Stubborn as an Ox” • Joyce took it upon himself to translate plays, hoping for the Irish Literary Theatre to produce them, but was rejected. • When an article was rejected by the college newspaper, he conspired with a friend who was also rejected to publish their articles themselves.

10. “Stubborn as an Ox” • When he was unable to pay for medical school and could not get a job as a tutor there, he made plans to go to medical school in Paris. • When working in Dublin after his mother’s death, he found work writing reviews for The Daily Express, but all of them were negative and he was told not to submit anymore after arguing with the editor.

11. “Stubborn as an Ox” • Looking for work in Dublin: “He was turned down for almost every job he applied for, and refused every job he was offered.” • In January, 1904, he submitted “A Portrait of the Artist” and was rejected. “…rejection was nearly as inspiring as acceptance, and he immediately retaliated with the idea of turning it into a novel.”

12. “Stubborn as an Ox” • In 1905, when the newspaper refused to publish any more of his Dubliners stories, due to complaints from readers, he continued to write them anyway. • Another article “The Holy Office” was also rejected by a college newspaper, so he again, published it himself. This paper offended many of his friends, including Gogarty (Buck Mulligan).

13. “Stubborn as an Ox” • When Grant Richards offered to publish Dubliners in 1906, he refused to “compromise” his work and haggled over editing until the deal fell through. • When his book of poetry, Chamber Music, was published, he was upset saying, “A page of A Little Cloud gives me more pleasure than all of my verses,” and threatened to remove it from publication.

14. “Stubborn as an Ox” • From 1909-1912, he worked with George Roberts to publish Dubliners, but again the book was never released because Joyce refused to remove works that may have been offensive. • In 1914 Dubliners was published by Richards with the stipulation that Joyce bought 120 copies himself and received no loyalties until the first 500 were sold.

15. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile”

16. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • In 1902, he met Yeats, who introduced him to Lady Gregory. When he went to Paris, he wrote to her for support. (page 8) She set up introductions for him in Paris.

17. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • While in Paris, he did give English lessons, but still wrote home for money. (page 16) • When he asked his parents about coming home for Christmas, “His father promptly put another mortgage on the house to pay for the trip.”

18. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • When he received word that his mother had died, Joyce borrowed the money to go home from one of his students. • Even after he insulted them in “The Holy Office,” Gogarty and Trench allowed him to live with them in Martello Tower for a time.

19. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • When Joyce and Nora left Dublin in 1904, they departed with only enough money to get to Paris, but a doctor he knew there gave them money for the rest of the trip. • When his brother joined him in Trieste, Joyce spent most of Stanislaus’s money and even took his brother’s paycheck without him knowing it.

20. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • In 1906, Joyce moved to Rome and took a job as a bank teller. “the bank paid him once a month, so no sooner did he have money than it was spent, followed by letters to Stanislaus for help.” (p95, 98, 105)

21. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • When he was dislocated to Zurich during WWI, “Thankfully, with the help of Pound, Yeats, and others, Joyce was granted seventy-five pounds from the Royal Literary Fund. His Zurich friends also helped him out with money; many paid for English lessons they never received, and one friend remembers, ‘Joyce was sometimes humorously indignant if a pupil insisted on having a lesson he had paid for.’”

22. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • H.G. Wells helped him get an agent to help publish Dubliners and Portrait in America. • Miss Weaver had the Egoist Press print Portrait. • Grant Richards published his play, Exiles. • Thanks to this help, Joyce lived an easy life in Zurich, sleeping late and spending time in cafes.

23. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • After the war, Joyce moved back to Trieste and lived in an apartment with his sister, her husband, and Stanislaus, who had been in an internment camp during the war.

24. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • Beginning sometime in 1917, and for twenty years thereafter, Harriet Weaver sent Joyce large donations which, estimated in today’s money, would total almost $1 million.

25. “Give Him and Inch, and He’ll Take a Mile” • Her reasoning was to “free his best and most powerful and productive years from the usual financial difficulty.” • Initially, she chose to remain anonymous. They met for the first time in England in 1922.

26. Sources And A Very Good Time It Was: A Short Life of James Joyce by Tim Miller Selected Letters of James Joyce Edited by Richard Ellmann