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VII
ONE OF POUND'S most fruitful relationships was his work
with James Joyce. In this case, he did little or no editing, and
had few personal contacts with the writer. The connection consisted,
essentially, of Pound's unflagging sponsorship of Joyce's work
over a period of ten years, 1914-24. It was during this period that
Joyce did his important work, and that his reputation was made.
In 1913, William Butler Yeats had called Pound's attention to
some poems by James Joyce as being worthy of inclusion in the Des
Imagistes anthology, which Pound was compiling. Pound liked the
work, and entered into correspondence with the poet. Soon afterward,
Joyce sent him the first chapters of Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man (1916). They were enthusiastically received, for
Pound at once realized that the contributor was a writer who was
trying to do a great deal; and in art, effort is half the battle.
Pound did not always accept Joyce's work as flawless in execution,
particularly some parts of Ulysses (1922), and he balked
at Finnegan's Wake (1939); but the mission had been accomplished.
One of the most advanced, and most difficult, writers of
the twentieth century had been launched.
In the January 15, 1914, issue of The Egoist, Pound devoted
his weekly book review column to citing Joyce's ten-year struggle
to get Dubliners (1916) printed. Joyce had found one publisher
willing to bring out the book, but he had backed out, in violation
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