At the end of 1913 the American poet Ezra Pound wrote to Joyce asking if he had anything he’d like to publish. Pound was acting as editor for a number of magazines including the Little Review in the United States, and the Egoist in London, and he was impressed by the chapters of A Portrait that Joyce sent him. The novel began to appear in serial form in the Egoist, from February 1914 to September 1915, but what was published was not always Joyce’s complete text as the Egoist’s printer refused to print certain passages. Joyce did not want the book to appear with cuts in the text and, since the English printers refused to print the complete text, it was printed in America and published as a book in December 1916. The Egoist Press then published it in book form in England in February 1917 using sheets printed in America.
Press ‘A’ to learn more about the genesis of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man… Press ‘B’ to learn more about the publishing of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man… Press ‘C’ to listen to the opening lines of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man