James Joyce's Manuscripts and Letters - University at Buffalo Libraries

98 James Joyce's Manuscripts and Letters
phrases, and notes, although occasionally a short paragraph or
fragment of a paragraph appears, for possible use in Finnegans
Wake.
In MS. VI. B. 1. there are numerous references and notes on
water, rivers, and laundry. Many of these entries have been used
in Book I, Chapter 8, the "Anna Livia Plurabelle" episode, FW
196-216.
Other Markings: " 'MAG-NIS' STENO-BLOC" printed in black on
front cover. A small round label on the upper right corner of front
cover gives the price of the tablet, "0'70." Many entries crossed
through with red or green crayon.
Dating: ca. 1922-24.
Publication: This MS. and the other "Finnegans Wake Holograph
Workbooks" are unpublished. Finnegans Wake was published in
1939 (New York: Viking Press; London: Faber & Faber). 7
Notes: Joyce began to make notes for FW in the autumn of 1922; 8 "on
10 March [1923] Joyce wrote a first sketch for a character in
Finnegans Wake." 9 The book was completed "in mid-November,
1938." 10 and "on 2 February [1939] Joyce exhibited a first bound
copy of Finnegans Wake." 11 Therefore, it can be assumed that the
"Finnegans Wake Workbooks" were written sometime between
Autumn 1922 and November 1938.
More specific dating is given wherever possible. The dating is
based upon internal and external evidence. This evidence may
consist of an actual date found in the MS. in question, e.g., MS. VI.
B. 5., p. [39], "today 16 of June 1924 . . ."; the evidence may consist
of an address or the label of a stationer, e.g., MS. VI. B. 5. in
which "S. Malo" is written on the back board, confirming the 1924
dating since Joyce spent the summer of 1924 in St. Malo; 12 or, as
is true in most cases, the evidence may be based on a careful
7 The pagination of the Viking and Faber & Faber editions is the same. All
references are to these editions of Finnegans Wake. For publication of fragments
from "Work in Progress" in periodicals and in book form prior to the
first edition of FW in 1939, see Slocum & Cahoon.
8 Gorman, James Joyce, p. 335.
9 Ellmann, "A Chronology of the Life of James Joyce," in Letters of James
Joyce, p. 47. See also p. 202 for a letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver, March 11,
1923: "Yesterday I wrote two pages-the first I have written since the final
Yes of Ulysses."
10 Gorman, James Joyce, p. 347.
"Ellmann, "A Chronology of the Life of James Joyce," in Letters of James
Joyce, p. 50.
12 See Letters of James Joyce, pp. 217-19, for four letters dated July-August
1924, "Hotel de France et Chateaubriand, Saint-Malo."