Pomes Penyeach: "Lucia's Book"

When Joyce pressed Ezra Pound for his opinion of the verse Joyce had written since Chamber Music, Pound was dismissive: “They belong in the bible or in the family album with the portraits.” This luxurious publication, featuring ornate lettering by Lucia Joyce, to some extent follows Pound’s directive, as a father-daughter collaboration formatted like a scrapbook. Twenty-five copies were printed. The edition, which Joyce referred to simply as “Lucia’s book,” came about through his many attempts to interest publishers in Lucia’s work. Obelisk, the Paris publisher of Pomes, eventually brought out her illuminated Chaucer A.B.C. in 1936.

James Joyce (1882–1941)
Pomes Penyeach
Illuminations by Lucia Joyce (1907–1982)
Paris: Obelisk Press; London: Desmond Harmsworth, 1932
The Morgan Library & Museum, gift of Sean and Mary Kelly, 2018; PML 197875
© The Estate of James Joyce.