Letters among a collection of personal items connected to James Joyce sold at an auction in London.
An intimate letter from James Joyce to his lover Nora Barnacle has been sold for over €360,000 at a Sotheby's auction in London, five times its estimated price.
The sexually explicit and erotic letter was written by James Joyce to Nora Barnacle during their separation of December 1909.
Another letter written in September 1904, just two months after Joyce and Barnacle began their affair, was sold for over €50,000. A third letter written just five days before the couple eloped to Trieste was sold for almost €126,000.
The letters were part of a collection of items once owned by Stanislaus Joyce, James's brother. They were offered for sale by the family of Stanislaus's daughter-in-law. The collection contained a first edition of 'Ulysses' from February 1922, inscribed with the words "To Stannie, Jim". The book was also sold for €167,000. James Joyce's own copy of a 1910 edition of 'Dubliners' sold for over €125,000. A bronze Feis Ceoil singing medal, won by James Joyce in 1904, fetched €21,500.
A spokesperson for Sotheby's described the items as among the most important related to James Joyce's personal life ever to go to auction. Stephen Joyce, James Joyce's grandson, who owns the copyright to the letters, has banned their publication.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 July 2004. The reporter is Brian O'Connell.
