The Joyce We Knew

"These reminiscences by some of his friends and contemporaries give an insight into James Joyce and bring to light many less well-known characteristics. Readers may be surprised to find out how much of an extrovert Joyce was. He is the practical joker in the school drama society and in the gymnasium. He is the star when they play charades at genteel Dublin musical evenings, and later he will entertain the company with songs, serious and comic. He had ambitions to be a first-class swimmer. He is the perfect Edwardian "card". How different from the withdrawn, aloof Stephen Dedalus." "William G. Fallon and Eugene Sheehy draw pictures of their schooldays with Joyce and their impressions upon meeting him after he had become famous. Padraic Colum first met Joyce when he was a student in Dublin and kept in contact with him; they met regularly in Dublin and later in Paris. Arthur Power first met Joyce in Paris, where they became good friends and spent much time together. Sean Lester, then acting Secretary-General of the League of Nations, met Joyce in Geneva less than a month before his death, finding him "completely unspoilt by his world success" but much hampered by his poor eyesight."--BOOK JACKET.