“I am in double trouble, mental and material” – James Joyce calls for help in private letter

In a 1904 letter to his close friend and supporter C.P. Curran, James Joyce writes:
"My Dear Curran, I am in double trouble, mental and material. Can you meet me tomorrow at half past four at smoke room in Bewley's in West-moreland Street?
Yours truly,
James Joyce"

The letter is one of two private letters James Joyce sent to his close friend and supporter C.P. Curran seeking his help and empathetic ear during his plight as a writer that have been acquired by University College Dublin to add to its archival collection of James Joyce materials.

A postcard written by Joyce’s younger brother, Stanislaus Joyce to C.P. Curran in 1907 to tell of the great writer’s “severe attack of rheumatic fever and inflammation of the eyes” has also been acquired by the university for its Special Collections.

In the second private letter written by Joyce to Curran in 1917 while he was in Zurich working on his novel Ulysses, the writer describes how he is “recovering from a painful — and this time dangerous — illness of the eyes…”

The new home at UCD Special Collections for the private correspondence between the two lifelong friends which had been held in safekeeping by the Curran family since they were first written is most fitting, because James Joyce (1882-1941) and C.P. Curran (1883-1972) first met and quickly became close friends and life-long companions while studying at the Dublin university.

Both Joyce and Curran graduated from University College Dublin with a BA in 1902.

“We urge people to explore these fascinating letters on the UCD Digital Library, and to see for themselves Joyce’s thoughts and words in his own handwriting” said Dr Sandra Collins, University Librarian, University College Dublin.

“People can also come and visit the exhibition in the James Joyce Library in UCD and enjoy the illuminating literary networks that formed such an important part of the fabric of society during revolutionary times in Ireland,” she added.

C.P. Curran, a lawyer and historian of 18th century Dublin architecture, sculpture and plasterwork, with a life-long interest in art and literature was to become a great supporter of Joyce throughout his writing career.

Curran also knew other early 20th Century Irish writers including W.B. Yeats, James Stephens and Padraic Colum. His legal career saw him rise to the post of Registrar of the Supreme Court before his retirement in 1953. Curran married the actress, costumier, teacher, and suffragist, Helen Laird (1874-1957) in December 1913.

With the blending of their social circles a vibrant and diverse group of artists, historians, playwrights, actors and writers were brought together with the couple at its centre. It was through Laird that Curran first met AE (George Russell) with whom he would have a close friendship until Russell’s death in 1935. Their group found an outlet in the couple’s famed weekly salons, held every Wednesday afternoon at their home at 42 Garville Avenue, Rathgar.

Curran was a model for the character Gabriel in James Joyce’s “The Dead”.

He is also mentioned by name in Ulysses, where Stephen Dedalus recalls that he owes him ten guineas.

The iconic 1904 portrait of James Joyce standing with hands in pockets, in front of a greenhouse, staring directly into the camera lens was taken by Curran in his family’s back garden at 6 Cumberland Place on the North Circular Road, Dublin.

In 1968, C.P. Curran summed up his life-long companionship with Joyce in his book: James Joyce Remembered.

The newly acquired Joyce letters and postcard have been included into an exhibition entitled Revolutionary Dublin’s Literary Networks at UCD Special Collections.
The original collection was acquired by University College Dublin in 1971.

It includes over 400 letters of correspondence, 130 of these letters relate to James Joyce in that they are either written by Joyce to Curran or they are from associates of Joyce and his family.

This collection is the core James Joyce archival collection within UCD and includes 23 letters written by Joyce to Curran. Other letters within the collection offer an insight into how people like Curran and his wife Helen Laird communicated with Lucia Joyce, Stanislaus Joyce, Harriet Shaw Weaver, Sylvia Beach and Paul Leon in order to support James Joyce and his family over the course of decades. This collection is a critical resource for Joyce scholars throughout the world.

The letters have been catalogued and placed within an acid free box which is kept in an environmentally controlled storage area adjacent to the Special Collections reading room within UCD Library. In this box, the temperature and relative humidity is kept at a constant level to ensure the letters will be preserved for future generations.

All the James Joyce related Curran Laird letters, including the three new acquisitions are available to view on the UCD Digital Library: https://digital.ucd.ie/