MACDIARMID, Hugh; FERGUSSON, John Duncan ( illustrator ). In Memoriam James Joyce. A Vision of World Language.

MACDIARMID, Hugh; FERGUSSON, John Duncan ( illustrator ). In Memoriam James Joyce. A Vision of World Language.Subscribers Copy MACDIARMID, Hugh; FERGUSSON, John Duncan (illustrator). In Memoriam James Joyce. A Vision of World Language. Glasgow: Published on behalf of the subscribers by William MacLellan. 1955. 4to. Publishers green cloth, gilt design by Fergusson to upper board, in the pale green dust jacket printed in white; pp. 150, numerous in text illustrations by Fergusson, one full page and printed in green (p. 5); slight sunning to lower edge of upper

Subscriber’s Copy

MACDIARMID, Hugh; FERGUSSON, John Duncan (illustrator). In Memoriam James Joyce. A Vision of World Language. Glasgow: ‘Published on behalf of the subscribers by William MacLellan’. 1955.

4to. Publisher’s green cloth, gilt design by Fergusson to upper board, in the pale green dust-jacket printed in white; pp. 150, numerous in-text illustrations by Fergusson, one full-page and printed in green (p. 5); slight sunning to lower edge of upper board and to spine of jacket, spine ends bumped, front cover of jacket faded and stained with short closed tear at head; some offsetting to endpapers; ownership inscriptions of B. C. J. G. Knight to front free endpaper and subscribers’ list (p. 149), both dated 30 June 1955, the first made in Reading, title signed ‘Hugh MacDiarmid | Reading 12/6/60’.

First edition, signed, of MacDiarmid’s encyclopaedic poetic tribute to James Joyce, the subscriber’s copy of influential British biochemist and microbiologist B. C. J. G. Knight (1904–1981).

MacDiarmid began writing the poem on the Shetland Islands shortly after Joyce’s death in 1941, but publication was delayed by the death of the intended publisher, Jack Kahane of the Obelisk Press in Paris, as well as by paper shortages and increased printing and binding costs during and after the Second World War. The illustrations to the text by Fergusson incorporate Joyce’s initials in Ogam, or early Irish script, ‘together with other symbols that convey Joyce’s concern with music, creation, feeling and his native Ireland’ (p. 10).

Provenance: Microbiologist and biochemist B. C. J. G. (Bert Cyril James Gabriel) Knight was editor of the Journal of General Microbiology and a founding member of the Society for General Microbiology, as well as the first to use monomolecular film measurements to determine chemical structures. His ownership inscription and MacDiarmid’s signature were made in Reading, where Knight was the university’s first professor of microbiology. ‘He was directly involved in developing the Second World War immunisation programme against tetanus and gas gangrene’ (University of Reading), and the university’s Knight Building is named for him.

For MacDiarmid’s letters to B. C. J. G. (mistakenly identified as ‘Jonathan’) Knight and his wife Frida, from July 1960 to October 1964, see Bold ed., The Letters of Hugh Mac-Diarmid (1984), pp. 664–70.

SKU: 2125255