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Curator’s Introduction Released

Marking the moment when James Joyce’s Ulysses turns 100, Dr Clare Hutton (Loughborough University), introduces some of the key ideas, objects, and people featured in the Ransom Center’s centenary exhibition Women and the Making of Joyce’s Ulysses.

This landmark work of literary modernism owes a considerable debt to the silent behind-the-scenes labour of three gay American women: Margaret Anderson, Sylvia Beach, and Jane Heap as well as that of British publisher Harriet Shaw Weaver. What did these women do to facilitate the making of the work? What actually happened on February 2, 1922? Who were the first readers of Ulysses? How did they obtain their copies and what did they make of the book?

To find out more about the exhibition, including location and opening dates, click below.

Exhibition details

Women Behind Ulysses Commemorated on St Brigid’s Day

Dr Clare Hutton sitting in a panel of women speakers on St Brigid's day

On 1 February 2022, in celebration of Ireland’s great female patron saint, St Brigid, The Embassy of Ireland (London) showcased the efforts of talented Irish women, both historic and contemporary. In one of three fascinating panels upon women in sport, women in climate science, and women and James Joyce, Dr Clare Hutton presented her research into the influence of Joyce’s mother upon the novelist’s success.

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Women and the Making of Ulysses: A History in Ten Objects (Part One)

First edition of *Ulysses* (from the Harry Ransom Centre’s James Joyce collection).

“Ulysses would have been a very different book had Sylvia Beach not been so generous in her support…”
Dr Clare Hutton (Loughborough University)

Read the first article in a series devoted to objects that tell the story of women who supported James Joyce and the publication of his landmark novel, Ulysses. In this week’s installment, Clare Hutton (Loughborough University) explores the determination and generosity of Sylvia Beach, the Parisian bookseller who first published Ulysses in 1922. Subsequent blogs will be released fortnightly, each exploring an object significant to the making of Ulysses.

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Women and the Making of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Photograph of Margaret Anderson (ca 1928).

“By the time he was finishing what has become known as the world’s most famous Irish novel, Joyce had garnered steadfast material and practical support from many sources, including a notable quartet of women who helped to see the work into print.”
Dr Clare Hutton

In an article published in the Ransom Centre Magazine, Dr Clare Hutton explores the forgotten labour of women in the realisation and publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). In particular, Hutton focuses upon the formative role that Joyce’s family members and four women—Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, Harriet Shaw Weaver, and Sylvia Beach, who were associated with innovative literary experimentation of the period—played in helping Joyce’s novel gain widespread notoriety and success.

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Loughborough University Releases Ulysses Centenary Video

In this recorded interview, Dr Clare Hutton explains the significance of Ulysses 100 years after its publication.

“Almost everyone can feel a sense of affiliation and fellow feeling with Leopold Bloom,” Hutton explains. “All of see some of our own lives reflected in his experience.”

To find out more about Dr Hutton’s upcoming exhibition upon Women and the Making of Ulysses, including location and opening dates, click below.

Exhibition details