''Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress'' is a 1929 collection of critical essays, and two letters, on the subject of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

's book ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

'', then being published in discrete sections under the title ''Work in Progress''. All the essays are by writers who knew Joyce personally and who followed the book through its development: * Samuel Beckett ("Dante... Bruno. Vico.. Joyce") * Marcel Brion ("The Idea of Time in the Work of James Joyce") *

Frank Budgen Frank Spencer Curtis Budgen (1 March 1882 – 26 April 1971) was an English painter, writer and socialist activist acquainted with the author James Joyce. Life Born in Crowhurst, Surrey, Budgen spent six years at sea before working in Londo ...

("James Joyce's ''Work in Progress'' and Old Norse Poetry") * Stuart Gilbert ("

Prolegomena In an essay, article, or book, an introduction (also known as a prolegomenon) is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the following writing. This is generally followed by the body and conclusion. Common features and techn ...

to ''Work in Progress''") *

Eugene Jolas John George Eugène Jolas (October 26, 1894 – May 26, 1952) was a writer, translator and literary critic. Early life John George Eugène Jolas was born October 26, 1894, in Union Hill, New Jersey (what is today Union City, New Jersey). His p ...

("The Revolution of Language and James Joyce") * Victor Llona ("I Dont Know What to Call It but Its Mighty Unlikely Prose") * Robert McAlmon ("Mr. Joyce Directs an Irish Word Ballet") * Thomas MacGreevy ("The Catholic Element in ''Work in Progress''") * Elliot Paul ("Mr. Joyce's Treatment of Plot") * John Rodker ("Joyce and His Dynamic") * Robert Sage ("Before ''Ulysses'' - and After") *

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

("A Point for American Criticism") Two "letters of protest" are also included in the ''Exagmination'', from G.V.L. Slingsby ("Writes a Common Reader") and Vladimir Dixon ("A Litter to James Joyce"). "G.V.L. Slingsby" was the pseudonym of a woman journalist who complained about the difficulty of ''Work in Progress'' to Sylvia Beach, the publisher of Joyce's '' Ulysses''. Since Joyce wanted the collection to contain negative criticism as well as positive, Beach invited the woman to write a pseudonymous article in dispraise of Joyce's new work. The journalist complied, choosing her pseudonym from Edward Lear's ''The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Round the World''. Stuart Gilbert and Sylvia Beach believed that Joyce wrote the second letter of protest himself, as it is addressed to "Mr. Germs Choice" and "Shame's Voice" alternately (two

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

s on Joyce's name), and the letter itself is written in a pastiche of the punning style that Joyce was then using in his published work. Their assumption, however, was challenged and proven false by the discovery in the late 1970s of a number of books and letters authored by the historical Vladimir Dixon, a minor poet of Russian verse living in France during the 1920s.

References

1929 non-fiction books Faber and Faber books Works about Finnegans Wake Books of literary criticism Essay anthologies Collections of letters {{lit-book-stub

See also

References