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[ Aetat. 44-47 ] J O Y C E 605partners at my instruction and at my expense, have printed and depositedat Washington, copyright dummies in my name for the fragments in t.10-12 and 13.ALP has not arrived but I expect her every day. I promised Drinkwaterthat I would reserve a copy for him though it is not easy to do this withsuch an edition. Did Miss Beach send you copies of photos he took of usand his letter in which he said that his wife, under the influence of readingme, had announced that she was terribly sick of bluggage. I think it notimpossible that he may consent to do a preface for another fragment and Ieven thought of proposing to Gage [sic] that he ask Edgar Wallace to doone, the tortoise and the hare.I have received three offers to give a series of lectures in Switzerland,two most urgent letters in which that extraordinary person Mr. Wilson ofWillington announces his willingness to pay mine and my wife's expensesup there and back and hotel expenses and what he calls a royal welcomefrom the miners and for all I know a present of a few tons of coal also. Hesent me some sort of gift, I am not sure whether it is a cartridge coach[sic] or a case for cigars and cigarettes. It is rather embarrassing to reply. Ialso had a visit from a very high up person of the Russian Embassy here.Full of great admiration and proposing to bring me la-bas. But from all Ican gather the condition of that country is dubious enough without inflictingon it the blighting influence of my one-quartered personality.I have also bad news. Poor Italo Svevo was killed on Thursday last in amotor accident. I have no details yet only a line from my brother and soI am waiting before I write to his widow. Somehow in the case of Jews Ialways suspect suicide though there was no reason in his case especiallysince he came into fame, unless his health had taken a very bad turn. Iwas very sorry to hear of it but I think his last five or six years were fairlyhappy.About fifty pages of Rebecca West's book* were read for me yesterdaybut I cannot judge until I hear the whole essay. I think that P.P. [PomesPenyeach] had in her case the intended effect of blowing up some bogeybogus personality and that she is quite delighted with the explosion. It is apity that W.L. [Wyndham Lewis] did not wait for its publication too as itwould probably have much mollified his attack. By the way, have you notreceived any press cuttings lately about his book and can you tell me howmany more books he has published since I left Paris a few months ago?There seems to be a mention of me every week in the New Statesman.The Irish Statesman, which you don't get, had an article about t. 13 andsome correspondence. Buck Mulligan fell out of an aeroplane with or afteror before a Lady Martin. One may joke a little about it because fortunatelyneither the air man nor the airmaid seems to be any the worse. In factthey fell into a very shallow sea and I suppose are now merman and mer-*The Strange Necessity. Miss West writes that her essay, which was in a personal aralmost fictionalframework, was intended 'to show the power of James Joyce breaking ina mind unprepared for it.' 111But it was immediately taken in a different way. Joyimocked the essay in Finnegans Wake.