JOYCE, James. Henri MATISSE, illustrator. ~ Ulysses. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1935.
Large 4to (295 × 225 mm), pp. 363, [1], 6 soft ground etchings on thick paper with a total of 20 reproductions of Matisse’s preliminary drawings on yellow and blue paper of different sizes (26 illustrations in all). Original brown buckram, gilt, with gold orb design to the upper cover, original slipcase. The slipcase slightly chipped towards the head. A fine copy, with the cloth binding exceptionally sharp and free of rubbing.
Number 58 of 1500 copies, signed in pencil by Henri Matisse (a further 250 copies of the edition were additionally signed by Joyce). This is the first illustrated edition of Ulysses, though Matisse chose to supply illustrations of the Calypso episodes of Homer’s Odyssey corresponding to the six episodes of the novel as his artist’s response to Joyce’s text (which, it is often said, he never finished reading). He thus confounded both the publisher, George Macy, and most of the public on its first publication. The Limited Edition Club edition owes its existence to the lifting of the American ban on the novel in December 1933. Henri Matisse, L’Oeuvre gravé, 235-240; Slocum & Cahoon, 22.