Beach and Joyce were approached for permissions soon after the first edition was published. The first translation of the whole text of Ulysses was the German, undertaken by the Swiss firm Rhein-Verlag. The first printings of this edition emphasized the private nature of the publication and did not mention the publisher’s name out of fear of prosecution.

A. Ulysses, (private printing) first edition, first printing, issued in three volumes; [Rhein-Verlag] (Basel, Switzerland, 1927); subsequent printings bear the publisher’s imprint and some are in two volumes. Georg Goyert was selected by the publisher to be the translator because he won a competition. While he had some help from Joyce, Goyert’s translation is flawed and is not the current standard German translation. On display is "Copy A," one of an unspecified number of copies printed especially for Rhein-Verlag. This one was given to Joyce, dated October 15, 1927, and signed by Walther Lohmeyer, director of Rhein-Verlag.

B. Berliner Tageblatt (Berlin, 17 April 1931), "Ulysses im Querschnitt" is one of hundreds of articles in the collection that document the German-language reception of Joyce’s works and their translations.

C. The influential French translation appeared two years later: Ulysse, first edition, first printing; La Maison des Amis des Livres, 7, rue de l’Odéon (Paris, 1929); printed by L’imprimerie Durand, Chartres. It was limited to 1,000 numbered copies and 200 copies "hors-commerce." There are 25 numbered and 10 lettered "hors-commerce" copies on Hollande van Gelder paper; 100 numbered and 20 "hors-commerce" copies on vélin d’Arches; and 875 numbered and 170 "hors-commerce" copies on alfa vergé. It is translated by Auguste Morel, assisted by Stuart Gilbert, reviewed by Valery Larbaud with the collaboration of the author. This is still the standard French translation of Ulysses. The Maison des Amis des Livres was run by Adrienne Monnier, Sylvia Beach’s partner, and was located next to Shakespeare & Co. This is "Copy F," printed for Sylvia Beach; signed and inscribed by Joyce:

To | Sylvia Beach | this trophy of her Seven Years’ War 1922—1929 |
James Joyce | Paris | Independence Day 1929.

D. An advertisement for the French translation of Ulysses in L’Atlantique (Paris, March 1931).

E. Shortly thereafter a Czech translation was published: Odysseus, first edition, first printing, issued in three volumes; Václav Petr (Prague, 1930), translated by L. Vymetal.

F. The first Dutch translation: Ulysses, Oliemeulen (New York, 1969), translated by John Vandenbergh. This is "Copy #30" and is signed by Vandenbergh. There is also a more recent Dutch translation of Ulysses, De Bezige Bij (Amsterdam, 1994), by Paul Claes and Mon Nys.

G. The Gaelic translation: Uliséas, Béal Feirste (Foillseac´áin Inis Gleoire, 1988—1992). It was a collaborative translation by Séamas Ó Mongáin, Breasal Uilsean, Séamas Ó hInnéirg´e and was issued as a set of nine monographs, several of which are on display here.

H. The first Italian translation of Ulysses: Ulisse, Arnoldo Mondadori (Milano, 1960), translated by Giulio de Angelis (with Glauco Cambon, Carlo Izzo, and Giorgio Melchiori). There is also a more recent Italian translation, Ulisse, Casalini (Firenze, 1995), translated by Bona Flecchia.

I. Several Chinese translations appeared in the 1990’s. This is Yu li his ssu, I lin chu pan she (Nan-Ching, 1994), issued in three volumes, translated by Chien Hsiao and Chieh-jo Wen. There is another full-length translation of Ulysses into Chinese in our collection, Chiu Ko (Taipei, 1993), by Jin Di.

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