The National Library of Ireland will be bidding today for the working draft manuscript of the "Circe" episode of James Joyce's Ulysses, which is being auctioned in Christie's in New York. The library was authorised earlier this week by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, to join the bidding.
If the National Library is successful, the State will have acquired a highly significant Joyce document, very possibly the last such to become available on the open market. The "Circe" episode of Ulysses is the longest and probably the most crucial of the book's 18 episodes. There is a serious and regrettable dearth of Joyce manuscripts in this State - the only exception being the fair copy of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, in the possession of the National Library.
The "Circe" working draft was given by Joyce to the New York solicitor, art patron and collector, John Quinn, as a kind of addition to a fair copy manuscript of Ulysses, which Joyce was selling to Quinn in instalments. It has remained in the possession of Quinn's descendants until now.
The director of the National Library, Dr Brendan O'Donoghue, told The Irish Times that in addition to the manuscript's intrinsic importance as a record of Joyce's creative activity in the writing of Ulysses, it was also a very handsome document in itself, and in fine condition. He would not be drawn on the library's maximum bidding figure, but it is quite clear that the library's involvement is much more than a token gesture. Dr O'Donoghue was cautiously optimistic as to the library's chances, while warning as to the uncertainty that always attends auctions.
Whatever the outcome of the sale, the fact that the National Library, traditionally starved of funds for acquisitions, is today in a position to be a serious bidder is itself testimony to the very special status of this document - and of its author.