Joyce's lauded biographer (James Joyce), Ellmann, professor at Oxford, provides a moving, informative introduction to Freund's landmark book. The photographer's text and pictures create a rare feeling of intimacy with the author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake when he was living in Paris during the late 1930s. Joyce is seen conferring with his family's best friends, Eugene and Marta Jolas (they published sections of Finnegans Wake in their review, Transition); with Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier (who published Ulysses) et al. But the most eloquent photos epitomize Joyce's "iron affection" for his wife Nora, his daughter, his son and daughter-in-law and their child. Relaxing in their company, the great author displays the Irish wit usually hidden by his shyness or insecurity. In the closeups that include a striking color shot, one sees the artist as an older man, marked by worry over reactions to his innovative novels, by heartbreak over the mental illness of his beloved young daughter Lucia, a myriad of emotions behind the familiar, peering eyes.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. (Source)