Item 4 - Photocopy of a letter from James Joyce to Grant Richards

Identity area

Reference code

IE 2135 P8/2/1/4

Title

Photocopy of a letter from James Joyce to Grant Richards

Date(s)

  • 10 July 1906 (date of original) (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

4 pp.

Context area

Name of creator

(1929-1994)

Biographical history

Edward Patrick McGrath was born in New York City on 8 December 1929, the son of Edward Patrick McGrath and Elizabeth née Breen. His parents had emigrated to the United States from Belfast. He received a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1958 and a master’s degree from Brooklyn College in 1960.

Edward McGrath began his career in journalism at the New York Herald Tribune in the 1950s. Over the years, he worked in publishing and public relations. During the final twelve years of his life he was president of McGrath Associates, a corporate communications consulting firm. Edward was also a writer. His published non-fiction works included articles on such far-ranging subjects as whaling and witchcraft. He had an interest in Irish literature and wrote fiction for personal pleasure. In 1974, Edward and his wife moved from New York City to Weston, Connecticut where among other things he held the position of chairman of the Library Board. Edward McGrath died in Weston on 23 August 1994.

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Scope and content

Photocopy of a letter from James Joyce, Via Giovanni Boccaccio, Trieste, Austria to Grant Richards, in which he outlines the various concessions he has made as to the alteration of some stories in Dubliners. States that he would rather omit five stories from the book than omit the story Two Gallants which is ‘the most important story in the book’. Also states that he regrets not being able to meet Richards in person and that if it were possible he ‘could much more easily defeat whatever influences you in holding your present position’. Concludes by noting that in composing his chapter of moral history, he has ‘taken the first step towards the moral liberation of my country.’

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Language of material

  • English

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    Alternative identifier(s)

    Original number

    P8/15

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