(Matisse, Henri: 1869-1954) Joyce, James.

Ulysses. Etchings by Henri MATISSE.

      NY: Limited Editions Club, 1935, first Matisse edition, one of 1500 numbered copies signed in pencil by Henri Matisse on the justification page. Illustrated with 6 hors-texte original soft-ground etchings (Duthuit 235-240), printed in black, + 20 photo-lithographic plates of drawings on yellow and blue paper. 11.5 x 9 inches, 420 pages. Internally bright, no foxing; front hinge strengthened; covers of binding with slight wear at extremities; the gilt lettering still bright; no slipcase. ”One of the very few American livres de peintres issued before World War II. The preparatory drawings reproduced with the soft-ground etchings (Matisse's only use of this medium) record the evolution of the figures from vigorous sketches to closely knit, if less spontaneous, compositions” - ”The Artist & The Book” 197. Other references: Duthuit no. 6; Skira 257; American Livre de Peintre 32; Slocum & Cahoon A22. From a Sotheby's catalogue: ”The text of this edition of Ulysses has recently gained added prominence in the so-called ”Joyce Wars” being cited as an important ”approved” edition published in Joyce's lifetime allegedly ignored or downplayed in the establishing of a corrected text”. And Christie's (London): ”The text of the present edition is taken from the second impression of the Odyssey Press edition published in Hamburg in 1933, which was revised by Stuart Gilbert, and Slocum and Cahoon wrote in 1953, 'is therefore the most accurate text [...] that has been published in the United States'. The American editions that preceded it were the pirated -- and corrupt -- 'ninth' edition published by Samuel and Max Roth in 1929, and the first authorized American edition (published by Random House in 1934) which was based on Roth's piracy and added some fresh errors. The present edition (which precedes by one year the first edition printed in England) was therefore the best published in America during Joyce's lifetime, with his authority, and under his supervision”.