While regular calendars note February 2 as Groundhog Day, it’s worth recalling that, on the literary calendar, today is the birthday of Dublin-born novelist James Joyce. On on this day in 1922, age at 40, he published Ulysses (which he pronounced “Oolissays”). February 2 was a lucky date in his mind. (He also thought blue and white most auspicious hues.)
At the Barnes and Noble website—home to regularly sound book reviews, short and long, and its Daybook—I learned the genesis of the repeated, breathless use of that already breathy word “yes” in the “famous 45-page, 8 sentence, Molly Bloom monologue” that ends Ulysses. Apparently, Joyce had simply heard a friend, an American named Lilian Wallace, saying the word “yes” over and over in conversation. She was in attendance at a special dinner Joyce held on the day Ulysses was published. (And at this dinner he unveiled a copy of Ulysses, which had blue covers and white type.)
Should you crave to read a tad more about Joyce and his quirks, which were legion, even by writers’ standards, check out today’s Writer’s Almanac. A sample here:
