Joyce Biography

Come on up, Kinch. Come up, you fearful Jesuit.

This page will eventually hold a biographical sketch of James Joyce written by Brazen Head editor Alan Zelenetz. We hope to have it online the the Autumn of 2022!

Joyce Biography

And A Very Good Time It Was: A Short Life of James Joyce
Back in 2004, Tim Miller of Six Galley Press kindly donated this comprehensive biographical essay on James Joyce. It’s a PDF, available for reading or downloading online.

Joyce Chronology

Joycean Chronology
Bob Williams’ chronology outlines Joyce’s life from 1882 to 1941.

Joycean Biographies

The following pages offer descriptions and commentary on published works of Joycean biography, photography, and geography. Certain books are also profiled under “Joycean Criticism,” such as Frank Budgen’s memoir and some Dublin-based Ulysses guidebooks. Joyce’s own letters are duplicated in “Joyce: Other Works.” If you have a question about where a particular volume is located, check the “Quick Reference Card” after the following links:

James Joyce
Starting with Herbert Gorman’s Forty Years, these are general biographies of James Joyce. Some cover his whole life, others focus on specific times and places.

Family & Associates
Biographies of Joyce’s friends, family, and associates, including Nora Barnacle, John Stanislaus Joyce, and Sylvia Beach.

Memoirs & Photographs
This page collects memoirs by people who actually knew Joyce: his brother Stanislaus Joyce, Frank Budgen, Arthur Powers, and Gisèle Freund. It also includes books of Joycean photos, and “Joycean” memoirs.

Letters
Collections of Joyce-related correspondence.

Dublin
Books about Dublin and Ireland in the time of James Joyce. This also includes prominent Ulysses walking guides.

Quick Reference Card

James Joyce Biographies
Anderson, Chester. James Joyce and His World
Beja, Morris. James Joyce: A Literary Life
Bowker, Gordon. James Joyce: A New Biography
Charles River Editors. The Life and Legacy of James Joyce: Pioneer of Modern Literature
Costello, Peter. James Joyce (Gill’s Irish Lives)
Costello, Peter. James Joyce: The Years of Growth 1882-1915
Davies, Stan Gébler. James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist
Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce
Fischer, Andreas. James Joyce in Zurich: A Guide
Gorman, Herbert S. James Joyce: His First Forty Years
Gorman, Herbert S. James Joyce
Hartshorn, Peter. James Joyce and Trieste
Joyce, Stanislaus. My Brother’s Keeper
Magalaner, Marvin & Richard M. Kain. Joyce: The Man, the Work, the Reputation
MacCabe, Colin. James Joyce: A Very Short Introduction
McCourt, John. James Joyce: A Passionate Exile
McCourt, John. The Years in Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste
O’Brien, Edna. James Joyce: A Life
Strathern, Paul. James Joyce in 90 Minutes
Zapico, Alfonso. James Joyce: Portrait of a Dubliner

Family & Associates
Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation
Jackson, John Wyse & Peter Costello. John Stanislaus Joyce: The Voluminous Life and Genius of James Joyce’s Father
Lidderdale, Jane & Mary Nicholson. Dear Miss Weaver: Harriet Shaw Weaver 1876-1961
Maddox, Brenda. Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom
Price, Stanley. James Joyce and Italo Svevo: The Story of a Friendship
Shloss, Carol Loeb. Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake

Memoirs & Photographs
Budgen, Frank. James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses
Cato, Bob & Greg Vitiello. Joyce Images
Colum, Padraic & Mary. Our Friend James Joyce
Curran, C.P. James Joyce Remembered
Freund, Gisèle. James Joyce in Paris: His Final Years
Freund, Gisèle. Three Days with Joyce
Gilbert, Stuart. Reflections on James Joyce: Stuart Gilbert’s Paris Journal
Groden, Michael. The Necessary Fiction: Life with James Joyce’s Ulysses
Joyce, Stanislaus. The Complete Dublin Diary of Stanislaus Joyce
Mulhall, Daniel. Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey
Noël, Lucie. James Joyce and Paul L. Léon: The Story of a Friendship
Power, Arthur. Conversations with James Joyce

Letters
Beach, Sylvia. The Letters of Sylvia Beach
Beach, Sylvia. Your Friend If Ever You Had One—The Letters of Sylvia Beach to James Joyce
Glasheen, Adaline & Hugh Kenner. A Passion for Joyce: The Letters of Hugh Kenner & Adaline Glasheen
Joyce, James. Letters of James Joyce, Vols. I, II, III
Joyce, James. Selected Joyce Letters
Pound, Ezra. Pound/Joyce: The Letters of Ezra Pound to James Joyce

Joycean Dublin & Ireland
Kain, Richard M. Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce
McCabe, Bernard & Alain Le Garsmeur. James Joyce: Reflections of Ireland
McCarthy, Jack & Danis Rose. Joyce’s Dublin: A Walking Guide to Ulysses
Nicholson, Robert. Ulysses Guide: Tours Through Joyce’s Dublin
O’Brien, Joseph V. Dear Dirty Dublin: A City in Distress, 1899-1916
Pearl, Cyril. Dublin in Bloomtime
Pierce, David. James Joyce’s Ireland

Author: Allen Ruch
Last Modified: 13 June 2024
Joyce Main Page: The Brazen Head
Contact: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com