Stephen, the executor of the Joyce estate, was known for his fierce defence of his grandfather’s legacy

Stephen Joyce, the last direct descendant of James Joyce who was known for his fierce guardianship of his grandfather’s works, has died at the age of 87 in Ile de Ré.

Stephen was the son of Giorgio Joyce, the son of James and Nora Joyce. His birth in February 1932 was marked by the Ulysses author with the poem Ecce Puer, which also mourns the death of Joyce’s father. “Of the dark past / A child is born; / With joy and grief / My heart is torn,” wrote Joyce. “A child is sleeping: / An old man gone. / O, father forsaken, / Forgive your son!”

Born in Paris, Stephen Joyce worked for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on African development before taking over stewardship of the Joyce estate. He kept strict control of his grandfather’s legacy, in 2004 threatening the Irish government with a lawsuit to prevent public readings on Bloomsday, the annual celebration of Ulysses, launching innumerable tussles with scholars over books on Joyce, and refusing permission to quote from Joyce’s writings. Academics, he told the New Yorker in 2006, were like “rats and lice – they should be exterminated!”

“I am not only protecting and preserving the purity of my grandfather’s work but also what remains of the much abused privacy of the Joyce family,” he told the New Yorker’s DT Max. “Every artist’s born right is to have their work ... reproduced as they want it to be reproduced.”

The expiration of copyright on Joyce’s works at the end of 2011 reduced the risk of reprisals from the Joyce estate for those wishing to perform or cite from the author’s works. “It’s been quite liberating [and] there’s a general sense of relief,” said Mark Traynor, manager of Dublin’s James Joyce Centre, at the time. “People can now go back and celebrate the words themselves and not have that anxiety over if they will hear from a lawyer.”

Irish president Michael D Higgins said Stephen Joyce “was deeply committed to what he saw was the special duty to defend the legacy of the Joyce family in literary and personal terms”.

“This was not a task carried out in harmonious circumstances at all times with those seeking to engage with James Joyce’s life and works,” said Higgins, adding that Stephen had recently become an Irish citizen.

“As ‘time’s wan wave’ brings an end to Stephen’s long and distinguished life, we extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace,” said the Museum of Literature Ireland, quoting from James Joyce’s poem A Flower Given to My Daughter, which was written for Lucia Joyce, Stephen’s aunt.