Rare Joyce And Shakespeare Books Fail To Sell At NYC Auction

By Vincent Murphy in New York [+1-347-654-9648]

A rare first edition copy of James Joyce's Ulysses has failed to sell at auction in New York despite attracting bids up to $420,000.

And the first ever collection of Shakespeare's plays published in 1623 - described as the most important book in English literature - was also withdrawn from sale after failing to meet the reserve price.

Both books were in the collection of a private British collector which went under the hammer at Sotheby's in Manhattan Thursday.

Sotheby's described the copy of Ulysses as "one of the most important" copies of Joyce's classic to ever come to public auction.

Bids opened at $260,000 and quickly rose in increments of $20,000 among several bidders.

But interest evaporated once the price rose to $420,000 - shy of the $450,000-$550,000 estimate.

Not only was the first edition signed by Joyce, but the book itself has a fascinating history.

It was originally owned by Sylvia Beach, the American woman who ran the bookshop in Paris which published Ulysses in 1922.

She kept a personal copy of the novel, which was signed by the author.

During World War II, Beach was forced to close her shop and was interned by the Nazis.

Her release was secured by an American living in Paris at the time, Tudor Wilkinson, and as a token of her gratitude, she gave Wilkinson the book as a gift.

Ulysses is one of the most sought after works for rare book collectors.

Just one thousand copies of the first edition were printed, and of those, 100 were published on Dutch manuscript paper and signed by the author.

The book on sale in New York Thursday was one of those 100.

Only around one third of those are in private ownership, which makes them even more valuable.

Two other Joyce books - first editions of Dubliners and A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man - also went under the hammer at last night's auction in New York and also failed to reach their asking prices of $150,000 and $40,000 respectively.

Just two Joyce works from the collection sold - a first English edition of Ulysses from 1936 and Collected Poems (1936) went for $6,000 and $17,500 respectively.

But Joyce's Ulysses was not alone in not selling.

A first folio of Shakespeare plays from 1623 - considered the most important book in English literature and, along with the King James Bible published a few years earlier, one of the two greatest books of the English language - also failed to meet its reserve price of $600,000.

Experts say without the publication of this folio after Shakespeare's death, 18 of his plays including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, A Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, The Tempest, Henry VIII, Twelfth Night and others, would have been lost forever.

Of the 750 copies made, only 220 are known to exist.

This copy attracted bids of up to $550,000 before being withdrawn.

A third folio of Shakespeare plays published in 1664 did sell at Sotheby's for $542,500.

That collection is considered the rarest of the 17th century editions of Shakespeare, as a large number of copies were destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666.