Joyce's Calling Card and Cane

Joyce wrote this note to George Pelorson (the pseudonym for Georges Belmont [1909-2008]) on his calling card in Ulysses-blue ink. It was enclosed with a copy of the 1939 Official Dublin Guide. The book had just been sent anonymously to Joyce’s address and he assumed a friend of his schoolmate Constantine Curran was responsible. Pelorson, a good friend of Beckett’s, was a frequent companion of Joyce toward the end of the 1930s. When he received the note and enclosure, Pelorson was working on an article on Finnegans Wake for Revue de Paris. Explaining that the Dublin guide is à propos of nothing, Joyce asks him to look at two “curious” pages where, unsurprisingly, the author is mentioned. Among other references, the guide highlights number 41, Brighton Square, Rathgar, as the birthplace of the world-famous writer.