7/21/2019 Letter from Joyce to Ibsen

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From James Joyce to Henrik Ibsen, 1901

Honoured Sir,

I write to you to give you greeting on your seventy-third birthday and to join my voice

to those of your well-wishers in all lands. You may remember that shortly after the

publication of your latest play hen e !ead "wa#en$, an appreciation of it appeared

in one of the %nglish reviews & 'he (ortnightly )eview & over my name. I #now that

you have seen it because some short time afterwards *r. illiam "rcher wrote to me

and told me that in a letter he had from you some days before, you had written, I have

read or rather spelled out a review in the (ortnightly )eview by *r. +ames +oyce which is

very benevolent and for which I should greatly li#e to than# the author if only I had

sucient #nowledge of the language.$ *y own #nowledge of your language is not, as

you see, great but I trust you will be able to decipher my meaning. I can hardly tell you

how moved I was by your message. I am a young, a very young man, and perhaps the

telling of such tric#s of the nerves will ma#e you smile. /ut I am sure if you go bac#

along your own life to the time when you were an undergraduate at the 0niversity as I

am, and if you thin# what it would have meant to you to have earned a word from one

who held so high a place in your esteem as you hold in mine, you will understand my

feeling. 1ne thing only I regret, namely, that an immature and hasty article should have

met your eye, rather than something better and worthier of your praise. 'here may not

have been any wilful stupidity in it, but truly I can say no more. It may annoy you to

have your wor# at the mercy of striplings but I am sure you would prefer even

hotheadedness to nerveless and cultured$ parado2es.

hat shall I say more3 I have sounded your name de4antly through a college where it

was either un#nown or #nown faintly and dar#ly. I have claimed for you your rightful

place in the history of the drama. 5%d6 Ha7 hat an ego7 89 years old7: I have shown

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what, as it seemed to me, was your highest e2cellence & your lofty impersonal power.

Your minor claims & your satire, your techni;ue and orchestral harmony & these, too, I

advanced. !o not thin# me a hero-worshipper. I am not so. "nd when I spo#e of you, in

debating-societies, and so forth, I enforced attention by no futile ranting.

/ut we always #eep the dearest things to ourselves. I did not tell them what bound me

closest to you. I did not say how what I could discern dimly of your life was my pride to

see, how your battles inspired me & not the obvious material battles but those that

were fought and won behind your forehead & how your wilful resolution to wrest the

secret from life gave me heart, and how in your absolute indi