James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysious Joyce (1882-1941) was born on February 2nd in a suburb of Dublin, as the eldest of ten children in a typical Irish family. His father, John Stanislaus Joyce, was a staunch anti-clerical and liberal, while his mother was a devout Catholic. During his childhood, his family was well-off, but in 1891, due to poor financial management and his father's alcoholism, they went bankrupt. The family gradually sold off their assets and endured a period of great poverty, moving 12 times in 10 years. His alcoholic father was in debt everywhere. Joyce began his education in 1888 at Clongowes Wood College but had to leave either due to illness or inability to pay tuition fees. For a short time, he received home lessons and attended the Christian Brothers school until he was offered a place at Belvedere College, run by Jesuits. The traditional Catholic discipline became his first exile and labyrinth. During a teenage crisis, he almost became a priest. However, despite the religious environment in which he studied, he rejected Catholicism at 16, later saying, "A prostitute and poetry will save me." In 1898, he enrolled at University College Dublin, studying mainly English, French, and Italian, while also engaging in the city's theatrical and literary circles. In 1900, his first text was published in the newspaper "Fortni," a critical study of Ibsen's theatrical dramaturgy, for which he later received a thank-you letter from the Norwegian author himself. Several of his critical essays followed. It is also believed that he completed at least two plays, which have not survived. After graduating in 1903, he decided to attend Dublin Medical School but traveled to Paris and soon abandoned his medical studies. Between November 11, 1902, and November 19, 1903, a total of 23 book reviews were published. In April 1903, he returned to Dublin upon learning that his mother was suffering from cancer. She tried to persuade him, even at her last moment, to embrace Catholicism, but he refused to kneel and pray for her salvation with the rest of the family. He began drinking, and the situation was dire; when his mother died on August 13, he continued drinking and deeply regretted his refusal to comply with her wishes, which profoundly affected him. The following year, he won the bronze medal at Feis Ceoil for singing, as he was also a wonderful tenor. In January 1904, he completed "A Portrait of the Artist," but its publication was rejected by the magazine Dana. At the same time, he began writing the novel "Stephen Hero," which remained unfinished. That same year, on June 6 (Bloomsday), he first met Nora Barnacle, a hotel maid, whom he fell in love with and later, in October, left Ireland with. They initially settled in Zurich and then in Trieste, where he worked as a teacher at the Berlitz school. On July 27, 1905, they had their first son, Giorgio, and over their 36 years together, they had two children. Joyce remained in Trieste for the next approximately 15 years, with a one-year break when, in July 1906, they moved to Rome, where he worked as a bank clerk. He occasionally visited Dublin, and in 1909, he briefly attempted to operate cinemas in Ireland in collaboration with other entrepreneurs. He soon abandoned the venture and returned to Trieste, but not before signing a contract with the publishing house "Maunsel & Co." for the publication of the short story collection "Dubliners." However, this work was eventually published in 1914 by Grant Richards. In the same year, "A Portrait of the Artist" was serialized in the magazine "Egoist," with the book being published in New York in 1916 and in London in 1917. In 1914, he began writing his most significant book, "Ulysses." During World War I, he lived in Zurich, and after the war ended, he moved to Paris at the invitation of the poet Ezra Pound, where he remained for the next 20 years. "Ulysses" was published in 1922, and around the same time, he began the initial work on "Finnegans Wake," with excerpts first appearing in the magazine "Transatlantic Review" in 1924. The final edition of the work was published in 1939, thanks to the efforts of Maria & Eugene Jolas, who encouraged him to complete it despite his own disappointments due to its initial reception. The last years of his life were financially comfortable. On July 4, 1931, after 27 years together, James and Nora married. In 1932, his father passed away, and in the same year, he became a grandfather. On December 14, 1940, Joyce and his family left Paris for Zurich. A month later, on January 13, 1941, he died prematurely at the age of 58 from a severe ulcer and was buried in the local cemetery.