'Goes on Just as Well if Read Backwards' Joyce (James) Auto...

Hammer

€6,600

'Goes on Just as Well if Read Backwards'

Joyce (James) Autograph Letter Signed to 'Dear Mr [Thomas] Pugh,' 1pp, on paper of Carlton Elite Hotel, Zurich, dated 22.9.1934, thanking him for sending photographs of Dublin. '[They] are now in New York. Please let me know what I owe you for them. I am glad you liked the little payment I asked my Dutch publisher to send you. You know people tell me it goes on just as well if read backwards. But the designs, I think are very charming.'
With a good signature (slightly smudged), 'James Joyce'. The paper a little marked and rumpled, pencilled squiggle on cognate page, otherwise V.G.
The 'little payment' evidently refers to Pugh's copy of 'The Mime, Mick & The Maggies,' a very generous payment. (1)

Provenance: From the collection of Joyce's friend, Thomas Pugh. (1)