Joyce commissioned at least 9 copies of two distinct typed schemata in November 1921 to assist Valery Larbaud and Jacques Benoist-Méchin in their preparation for the "séance consacrée à James Joyce," 7 Dec. 1921.
Library's copy bears some similiarity to other versions reproduced in the James Joyce archive (e.g. Buffalo MS V.A.1.b.1), however it is smaller, lacks the preponderence of colons and miscellaneous punctuation, has no title heading, and uses the American spelling of 'color.' The Nestor's scene is given as The Nouse; the arts in the Telemachia are capitalized.
This copy of the schema accompanied the library's copy of the 1924 edition of Ulysses, inscribed by Joyce to the composer George Antheil, 13 May 1925 (cataloged as PML 197792); the schema was folded and mounted in the book by the 1980s, later separated and enclosed in a pocket on the front paste-down; by 1999, laid into separate portfolio.
Dimensions of each of the four joined sheets: 13.7 x 17; 13.7 x 20.5; 13.7 x 19.5; 13.7 x 19 cm.
Ulysses schema
Black ribbon typed chart for Ulysses, comprised of 4 pages joined horizontally showing correlations for every chapter with respect to title, scene, hour, organ, art, color, symbol, technic, and correspondences.
James Joyce’s "Ulysses" remains one of the most significant novels of all time. Its complex structure links the epic to the ordinary, connecting characters and motifs from Homer’s Odyssey with figures, both real and imagined, in Joyce’s native Dublin on June 14, 1904. Over the course of its composition, between 1914 and 1921, Joyce created lists and charts to help plan Ulysses—the culmination of which was this schema, as Joyce called it, typed and formatted like a horizontal scroll. As he neared Ulysses’ completion, Joyce had sought to elaborate and unify more motifs across episodes as well as clarify the novel’s underlying structure for certain critics and translators. This particular schema diagrams Ulysses with respect to each episode’s symbol, color, art, organ, hour, scene, narrative technique, and Homeric correspondences.
Joyce prepared some copies of his schema to present as gifts to significant people in his life, including his patron Harriet Shaw Weaver and publisher Sylvia Beach. This copy was prepared for the American avant-garde composer George Antheil (1900–1959), who announced plans in early 1924 for a forthcoming experimental opera based on the novel’s “Cyclops” episode. The opera was never completed, though Antheil would later finish less ambitious musical settings of Joyce’s shorter texts.