ELIOT REQUESTS JOYCE'S 'GRAMAPHONE' JOYCE, JAMES. Anna Livia Plurabelle, Part I from "Work In Progress." 12-inch, 78 rpm shellac record album, white labels printed in green (70mm; 85mm diameters), with "The Orthological Institute, 10 King's Parade, Cambridge" on both labels and "Manufactured by The Gramophone Co., Hayes, Middlesex" on Part II only, reference number in pencil on one side; original brown paper sleeve, edge splits and few small chips and creases; preserved in custom cloth folding portfolio with matching clamshell box (Alexander Neubauer bookplate). first pressing of this recording, produced by C.K. Ogden in Cambridge (later pressings were issued by His Master's Voice, the Argus Book Shop, Chicago, and the Gotham Book Mart, New York). Slocum and Cahoon incorrectly list London as the site where the recording was made; Sylvia Beach writes: "Mr. Ogden boasted that he had the two biggest recording machines in the world at his Cambridge studio and told me to send Joyce over to him for a real recording. And Joyce went over to Cambridge for the recording of Anna Livia Plurabelle" (Beach p.176). A typescript in half inch letters was prepared to compensate for Joyce's dwindling sight, but the overhead illumination in the studio proved inadequate so that Joyce ended up reciting much of the text from memory, prompted by Ogden, who is audible at moments on the recording. Slocum and Cahoon p. 173. Cambridge: The Orthological Institute, [1929]
with-Typed letter signed, "Yours sincerely, T.S. Eliot" to "Dear Ogden." London. June 30, 1930. 4to, one leaf, recto only, on the Criterion stationery, with autograph emendations in black ink. Eliot's request for both his paid copy of the album and a review copy for an upcoming series of reviews of Joyce's work in the Criterion. Reads in full: "Dear Ogden, Having not come across you at the Club for some time, I am writing to claim my copy of the Joyce gramaphone [sic] record. Can you let me know how it can be sent to me here, and I will send my cheque forthwith. Hamish Miles is reviewing our anna livia plurabelle, together with shem and shaun, and haveth childers everywhere, and Gilbert's ulysses in the September Criterion and he would very much like to review the gramaphone [sic] record at the same time. Would it be possible, in consideration of the fact that we are advertising the record with anna livia, (which, I may mention, is now in its third impression) to provide a review copy of the record? Miles has a gramaphone [sic]. But if you can't give away a copy, I will lend him mine when it comes. By the way, I had intended to send you a complimentary copy of Gilbert's book when it was published, and by an oversight this wasn't done. If you have not got a copy I should be delighted to send you one now. Yours sincerely, [signed] T.S. Eliot." an important literary association.
