Description

This collection of photographs shows the Irish novelist James Joyce, as well as members of his family and some of his associates. Some are by notable photographers such as the avant garde Henri Martinie (B, ff. 3–5r).

The collection also includes photographs of the novelist’s wife, Nora Joyce, and of his daughter, Lucia Joyce. There are single portraits of Sylvia Beach and Harriet Shaw Weaver who, as his publishers and patrons, played instrumental roles in Joyce’s career. Beach inscribed her own portrait with a handwritten dedication to her partner: 'For Josephine with love from Sylvia 28/1/1926'. The photographs in part B of the collection were sent from Beach, who lived in Paris, to Weaver, in London.

Harriet Shaw Weaver Papers

This collection belongs to the Harriet Shaw Weaver Papers, which Weaver bequeathed to the British Library in her will (executed in 1970). Weaver was a publisher, editor and Joyce’s patron. Containing a vast number of letters, cuttings and photographs, the Papers shed light on the lives and work of both Joyce and Weaver.