Pomes Penyeach

First edition. 16mo. [24] pp. Publisher's pale green paper boards lettered in dark green to front with 'Price One Shilling | Herbert Clarke, Paris' printed to rear. Errata slip tipped-in to the final leaf, as called for. With the rare publisher's plain tissue dustwrapper. First trade edition, following a limited issue of thirteen copies on Dutch handmade paper.

Collection of thirteen short poems, written by Joyce between 1904 and 1924, with each poem followed by place and year of composition. Initially rejected for publication by Ezra Pound, they were eventually published by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare & Co. on 5 July, 1927, for the price of one shilling (12 pennies) or 12 francs.

Slight tanning along spine and board edges, light browning to endpapers, plain tissue wrapper darkened to spine with a few minute closed tears and chips to backstrip fold, else Fine. Contents clean and bright. Scarce in this condition, especially in the near-unobtainable wrapper.

The title of the first poem, 'Tilly' recalls the thirteenth item in a 'Baker's dozen' and represents the bonus offering of this penny-a-poem collection. "Pomes Penyeach consists of texts which differ in structure, style and themes . . . To some extent, the collection remains suspended between tradition and experimentation." –Literary Encyclopedia

[Slocum & Cahoon A24]