Sir, Stephen James Joyce's letter of June 28th (an earlier version was printed in the Times Literary Supplement the previous day) attempts to implement, via the popular press, an intention earlier thwarted by the courts: the banning of Dan is Rose's "Reader's Edition" of Ulysses The tabloid tone of his letter indicates the passion with which this futile and censorious end is being pursued.
Mr Joyce sought to prevent publication of the new edition, and denigrated it in much the same terms, before he had read one word of the edition or of its extended introduction setting forth the rationale on which it is grounded.
As publishers of the Dublin Edition, through which we are privileged to honour a great writer in the land of his birth, we offer the following observations.
The present spat over Ulysses is based in part on a notion of an inviolate, quasi-divine text whereby any editorial intervention incurs the charge of blasphemy, with a concomitant desire on the part of keepers of the flame to exercise and maintain total control of holy writ. Rose's achievement lies in dislodging Ulysees from the hands of this priesthood and, by dint of a superlative piece of extended editing, locating it within contemporary literature, not as text but as a novel to be read by the general public. His changes are either of a typographical nature or are pin- point corrections/emendations to its micro-structure (carefully outlined in the introduction). These do not affect the "artistic achievement" that is Ulysses.
The gross exaggeration of the impact of the editor's role by Mr Joyce clouds the issue while seeking to protect the vested interests of academics and of the Estate. Danis Rose has succeeded in precisely what he set out to do: no less than the scrupulous restoration of a masterpiece. An individual wishing to judge the quality of this achievement has simply to read the new edition and to compare it with any of the other versions readily available.
Mr Rose's crime is to have been so radical in his disdain for moribund precedent as to incense these guardians of the text. It is worth remembering that Sylvia Beach prefaced the first edition with the following, in relation to the text's integrity: "The publisher asks the reader's indulgence for typographical errors unavoidable in the exceptional circumstances." Mr Stephen James Joyce should accept that he cannot control the actions of editors and publishers. Having failed to ban the edition, he patently wishes to damage it. - Yours, etc.,
The Lilliput Press, Arbour Hill, Dublin 7.