University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, Ireland English Language and Literature 1995 James Joyce and the Burden of Disease Kathleen Ferris Lincoln Memorial University Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Ferris, Kathleen, "James Joyce and the Burden of Disease" (1995). Literature in English, Ireland. 4. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_ireland/4 JAMES JOYCE & the BURDEN OF DISEASE AMES OYCE & THE BURDEN OF DISEASE Kathleen Ferris THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Frontispiece: Photograph of James Joyce courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Library. Copyright © 1995 by The University Press of Kentucky Paperback edition 2010 The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Ferris, Kathleen, 1941– James Joyce and the burden of disease / Kathleen Ferris. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8131-1893-X 1. Joyce, James, 1882–1941—Health. 2. Novelists, Irish—20th century—Biography. 3. Syphilis—Patients—Ireland—Biography. 4. Venereal diseases in literature. 5. Body, Human, in literature. 6. Syphilis in literature. 7. Health in literature. I. Title. PR6019.09Z533378 1994 823’.912—dc20 [B] 94-19905 ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2664-7 (pbk.) This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses Contents List of Illustrations VI Acknowledgments VII Prologue 1 1 The Creative Daemon 15 2 The Wandering Jew in Ulysses 39 3 Epics of the Body 66 4 An Insectfable 120 Epilogue: Dear mysterre Shame's Voice 148 Chronology ofJoyce's Medical History 155 Notes 160 Bibliography 167 Index 179 Illustrations 1 Treponema pallidum, the spirochete that causes syphilis 71 2 Joyce at Midnight, by Desmond Harmsworth 87 3 The Apostle Mark from' The Book ofKells 134 4 Letter T from the Tunc page of The Book ofKells 141 Acknowledgments First, my thanks to Oliver D. Gogarty, son of Oliver St. John Gogarty, for his consent to my quoting from the letters of his father; to Erwin Ellmann, brother of Richard Ellmann, for his permission to quote from the Ellmann correspondence and interviews; to Margaret Gibson Phillips, daughter of Desmond Harmsworth, for permission to reproduce the sketch "Joyce at Midnight"; and to the Board of Trinity College, Dublin, for permission to reproduce two images from The Book of Kells. Thanks also to Yale University Library for authorizing use of manuscript materials and the photograph of Joyce that ap­ pears on the dustjacket, all of which are located in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; to the Harry Ransom Hu­ manities Research Center for permission to use the sketch "Joyce at Midnight"; to The Poetry/Rare Books Collection, University Libraries, State University of New York at Buffalo for permission to cite manuscripts; and to the Cornell Univer­ sity Library for permission to cite manuscripts from the Divi­ sion of Rare and Manuscripts Collections. Further, I wish to express my debt to the many people whose assistance and encouragement have made this book pos­ sible: First, my gratitude to three eminent Joyceans who gave very generously of their time to read and critique the manu­ script in its earlier stages. Morton Levitt, Fritz Senn, and the late Bernard Benstock offered corrections, advice, and criti­ cisms that have helped me to strengthen my argument and have, I hope, saved me from future embarrassment. Whereas I am deeply indebted to them all, I claim all remaining defi­ ciencies of the book as my own. Also I wish to thank the medical doctors who have given viii Acknowledgments so much of their time, expertise, and library resources to help me understand the complexities of fields of study not my own. My opthalmologist, Dr. Harold Akin, spent many hours re­ viewing the medical and literary evidence with me, and with­ out his assistance and encouragement I might have abandoned this project in its early stages. Dr. Frank Carter, an internist, twice read my third chapter to check the medical information, as did Dr. Harold Akin and Dr. J. Howard Young, my gyne­ cologist. The late Dr. Rudolph Kampmeier kindly spent an afternoon reviewing my evidence and explaining to me the symptoms and cycles of a disease that he had spent many years of his life treating before the advent of penicillin. Dr. Hansreudi Isler listened to my ideas and tried to assist me from Zurich. Psychologist Richard L. Saylor, ~ho works with schizophrenics, discussed with me the manifestations of that disease and provided me with valuable literature. Drs. Mark Simpson, Howard Simpson, Robert Sanders, and Harold Akin also lent me textbooks from which I launc~ed my medical study. My doctoral committee at Emory University played a cru­ cial role in the early stages of this endeavor. My director, Dr. Ronald Schuchard, gave me encouragement and, perhaps more important, the freedom to follow my own ideas, provid­ ing his knowledge ofJoyce and Joycean scholarship to guide me. Dr. James Flannery, with his broad knowledge of Ireland and of the literature of the period, gave my work close critical reading and offered me invaluable advice on how to get it published. Dr. Georgia Christopher was a careful editor who played the Devil's Advocate with a vengeance. My school, Lincoln Memorial University, and the Faculty Scholars Program at the University of Kentucky enabled me to attend Joyce conferences, thus providing me the opportu­ nity to present my ideas to a forum ofJoyce scholars. Librarians at many schools have given me kindly assistance, for which I am very grateful: Dr. Thomas Staley, Research Librarian Cathy Henderson, and Barbara LaBorde at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University Acknowledgments ix of Texas at Austin; Mr. Sidney F. Huttner and his staff at the McFarlin Library ofthe University of Tulsa;James Tyler, Lucy Burgess, and Elaine Engst at the Division of Rare and Manu­ script Collections of Cornell University; Dr. Robert Bertholf and his staff at The Poetry/Rare Books Collection, University Libraries, State University of New York at Buffalo; and Doris Dysinger and her staff in Special Collections at Bucknell University. Also the interlibrary loan departments at Emory University (Margaret Whittier), Middle Tennessee State Uni­ versity (Almyra Medlin and Betty McFall), and Lincoln Me­ morial University (Karen Loving) have obtained for me many books and articles to which I would not otherwise have had access. My friends and family also have given me support, moral and intellectual, physical and financial, enabling me to perse­ vere in this task. My colleagues at Lincoln Memorial Univer­ sity, especially my chair, Dan DeBord, and my buddies David Sprague and Kay Davis, have offered me encouragement in my scholarly efforts. My friend Whitney Stegall has assisted me financially. Wera Howard and Nancy Rupprecht trans­ lated an article for me. Ginny Vesper obtained books. Bill Geissler and Diti Geissler lent me a computer, and my brother Arthur later built one for me, without which this book would never have been completed. Many friends, such as John Juricek, Linda Magee, Bascom Williamson and Mitsue Williamson, and the Geisslers, have listened patiently while I have expounded my ideas. My father-in-law, Paul Ferris, read through rough drafts and offered sound editorial advice, as did my husband, Norman, who also bought me books, ran errands, obtained articles, tended children, dogs, cats, and plants, cooked dinner, and hardly complained. My children have humored me. My mother has been proud of me. This work is the result of the contributions of many. With gratitude to NORMAN, whose love and support have made this work possible, and to my MOTHER, who taught me to love books. Prologue Richard Ellmann's biography and critical writings onJames Joyce, and his editing of the Joyce correspondence, form the foundation on which subsequent Joyceans, especially those of us who studied with him, have built. I am very grateful to Dr. Ellmann for the work to which he devoted so many years of his life. By gathering, preserving, and publishing so much information for his monumental study, James Joyce, he performed an invaluable service to future generations of Joyce scholars. However, just as a titanic writer can dominate an era and become a force from whom those who follow must seek to liberate themselves, so too can a powerful scholar cast an excessive influence over a field of studies. Ellmann's biography ofJoyce, as Melvin J. Friedman recently observed, has been repeatedly referred to as "definitive" (Reviewing Classics ofJoyce Criticism 133). This work has so dominated the field ofJoyce studies that when we refer to Joyce, we refer to EHmann's Joyce; there is no other. And we no longer write biographical criticism, because after EHmann, what more is there to say? In recent years, however, critics have begun to question the accuracy of Ellmann's portrayal.