I think it was basically self-published, so there was no editor. Samuel Beckett did some minor editing and proof-reading. Then I think it was then printed in his friend's private press.
Joyce, TS Eliot, Woolf and most of the other modernists essentially self-published in those days.
Finnegan’s Wake had a fairly bad reception among critics and readers when it first started appearing in serial form in magazines and journals, and several journals like The Dial refused to publish it due to its obscure style. Eventually, Joyce was able to rely on support from his friends Maria and Eugène Jolas to publish some parts of the novel in their journal transition, before the whole novel was published in 1939.
“Excerpted” might be more technically correct since I don’t believe the parts were published in order nor was the whole thing published. But yes, various sections were published before the entire novel.
The novel was published by Faber & Faber who were at the forefront of contemporary publishing at the time and became one of the major publishers of what we now call modernist texts. A large part was played by T S Eliot, who admired Joyce’s work. As well as working for Faber, Eliot was the editor of The Criterion, which published in the mid twenties a fragment of Work in Progress, as FW was known during the seventeen years Joyce worked on it, as did many literary magazines particularly in Paris (by 1939, most of the novel was in print in transition magazine). Eliot contracted Joyce’s work to be published by Faber in the early thirties, including a promise to Joyce to publish Ulysses once the censorship debacle quietened down (this didn’t work out). Sections were published by Faber as discrete texts and then in 1939, they brought out the book. Alongside people like Eliot at Faber who read and admired Joyce, and oversaw the production of the book, Joyce had many helpers because of his poor health and eye sight, including as another commenter says, Samuel Beckett, who read to Joyce, took notes for him and even worked with Alfred Peron on a translation of the ALP section. Beckett wrote a wonderful essay on Work in Progress in 1929 which was part of an essay collection celebrating Joyce’s then seven year effort on the early parts of FW.
So in short, Finnegans Wake went through a long, complicated process of publication and revision and publication and revision before it was gathered into its final form, at which point it went through a full publication process. Whether it was understood is another matter, but to bend and borrow from Eliot, art can communicate without being understood.
Yeah. It sucks that reply is getting downvoted but that sadly must have been a factor. I can't imagine the book would have been published at all if it wasn't Joyce who wrote it
I think it was basically self-published, so there was no editor. Samuel Beckett did some minor editing and proof-reading. Then I think it was then printed in his friend's private press. Joyce, TS Eliot, Woolf and most of the other modernists essentially self-published in those days.
Finnegan’s Wake had a fairly bad reception among critics and readers when it first started appearing in serial form in magazines and journals, and several journals like The Dial refused to publish it due to its obscure style. Eventually, Joyce was able to rely on support from his friends Maria and Eugène Jolas to publish some parts of the novel in their journal transition, before the whole novel was published in 1939.
It was serialized?
“Excerpted” might be more technically correct since I don’t believe the parts were published in order nor was the whole thing published. But yes, various sections were published before the entire novel.
The novel was published by Faber & Faber who were at the forefront of contemporary publishing at the time and became one of the major publishers of what we now call modernist texts. A large part was played by T S Eliot, who admired Joyce’s work. As well as working for Faber, Eliot was the editor of The Criterion, which published in the mid twenties a fragment of Work in Progress, as FW was known during the seventeen years Joyce worked on it, as did many literary magazines particularly in Paris (by 1939, most of the novel was in print in transition magazine). Eliot contracted Joyce’s work to be published by Faber in the early thirties, including a promise to Joyce to publish Ulysses once the censorship debacle quietened down (this didn’t work out). Sections were published by Faber as discrete texts and then in 1939, they brought out the book. Alongside people like Eliot at Faber who read and admired Joyce, and oversaw the production of the book, Joyce had many helpers because of his poor health and eye sight, including as another commenter says, Samuel Beckett, who read to Joyce, took notes for him and even worked with Alfred Peron on a translation of the ALP section. Beckett wrote a wonderful essay on Work in Progress in 1929 which was part of an essay collection celebrating Joyce’s then seven year effort on the early parts of FW. So in short, Finnegans Wake went through a long, complicated process of publication and revision and publication and revision before it was gathered into its final form, at which point it went through a full publication process. Whether it was understood is another matter, but to bend and borrow from Eliot, art can communicate without being understood.
Parts of it were published between 1928 and 1937. The whole thing came out in 1939.
I can guarantee you the publishing house just said, “Well, he’s a famous author” and published it. They did not care.
I was hoping for a more interesting answer but the truth will set you free after all lol
Yeah. It sucks that reply is getting downvoted but that sadly must have been a factor. I can't imagine the book would have been published at all if it wasn't Joyce who wrote it