Pomes Pennyeach

[Henry Whalley]

How important was Detroit in 1927? Here's a story that captures it:

Circa 1976 my friend Joe Luycx [[pronounced Loyks) showed me a rare book of poems by James Joyce. It was a first edition of Pomes Pennyeach — one of just thirteen copies printed on Dutch handmade paper and published in 1927 by Sylvia Beach's Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Joe purchased it in 1927 from a downtown Detroit bookseller -- I believe it was Doubleday near his law office in the Penobscot Building. There were but thirteen copies of this edition in the whole wide world and one was in Detroit which was a great cultural center at that time.

Joe asked me to find a buyer for Pomes Pennyeach as he wished to place a few of his life's treasures in appreciative hands. At the time I was just starting out in adult life and had zero disposable cash -- I certainly didn't have the $200 that Joe was asking and had no lawful way of getting it. But I did find the right buyer. She passed a few years ago and probably left it for her children.

The story is a measure of cultural Detroit in 1927.

[Henry Whalley]

Correction: I found an old letter from Joe thanking me for finding a buyer for Pomes Pennyeach and I see that I misspelt his name by one 'k' -- his last name was Luyckx. It's one of those troublesome Dutch or Belgian names.