T. S. Eliot and James Joyce: 1923-1927

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore, from the perspective of biographical criticism, the relationship between T. S. Eliot, the greatest modernist poet, and James Joyce, the greatest modernist novelist in the 20th century during the years 1923-1927. This paper is to thoroughly trace the mutual relationship or the influential interaction between Eliot and Joyce mainly through correspondence in The Letters of T. S. Eliot 2: 1923-1925 (2009), The Letters of T. S. Eliot 3: 1926-1927 (2012), Letters of James Joyce 1 (1957), and Letters of James Joyce 3 (1966). The editor of The Criterion, Eliot’s solicitation for Geroge Saintsbury’s critical essay on Joyce’s Ulysses, his criticism on the novel, his persistent concern with Joyce’s eye operations and with finding his family’s flat, Joyce’s parody poem of Eliot’s The Waste Land, and the novelist’s concern with the Eliot couple are elaborated on. Eliot’s vehement attack towards Richard Aldington’s harsh critique on Ulysses and his high estimation of Joyce’s “mythical method” paralleled with the structure of Homer’s Odyssey in “Ulysses, Order, and Myth” (1923), the editor’s criticism on Samuel Roth’s unauthorised publication of Ulysses and his own poem, his signature for the international protest chiefly organized by Sylvia Beach as a way of Joyce’s suit against Roth are also deeply investigated. In short, numerous letters of Eliot, Joyce, and Pound with regard to the relationship between Eliot and Joyce over a period of five years intensively reveal their influential interplay ranging from intimate relationship to cooperative friendship as modernist masters allied against severe critiques on Ulysses and unlawful infringement on their copyrights.