Letters Home

A prolific correspondent, James Joyce saved much of what he wrote. His letters document his first experiences away from home in 1902–1903, his first meeting and courtship with Nora Barnacle beginning in 1904, his financial struggles, and his personal and professional relationships throughout his lifetime. Variously frank, cantankerous, pleading, terse, lyrical, confident, and despairing, Joyce’s letters offer a revealing window into his complex and contradictory mental landscape. Cornell’s Joyce Collection contains 334 of his letters, and nearly 900 letters to Joyce from friends, publishers, writers, agents, and family members.

Joyce left Dublin for Paris at the age of twenty-one on December 1, 1902. He considered his departure a step towards moral and artistic independence, but he nonetheless maintained an anxious correspondence with his family back in Ireland. His letters boast of plans and new experiences, while seeking approval and support. Joyce’s first stay abroad, ostensibly to study at the École de Médecine of the University of Paris, was short lived. He was in Paris only two weeks before asking his mother whether he should come home for Christmas. He set sail for Dublin on December 22, and spent a month there before again returning to Paris on January 21, 1903.

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