Joyce, James - Cats of Copenhagen (Scribner, 2012)

Preface
Exquisite, minuscule, and with a strong, almost anarchic subtext, The Cats of Copenhagen is a slightly
younger twin sister to The Cat and the Devil, the only other known example of James Joyce writing a story
for young children. Both works, written within a few weeks of each other, are in letters posted to Stephen
James Joyce, his only grandchild. Clearly, cats were a common currency between them: cats, and their
common need to have somebody around to help them cross the road.
When he wrote to his grandson on August 10, 1936, telling him about the cat and the devil of Beaugency
(he was writing from Villiers-sur-Mer in Calvados), Joyce let him know that a few days earlier he had sent
on for him “a little cat filled with sweets”—a kind of Trojan cat to outwit the grown-ups. Another great idea
pinched from Homer!
Like many otherwise sensible people, James Joyce detested, even loathed, dogs; but he thought the
world of cats. In the first chapter of Ulysses in which Leopold Bloom appears, the very first conversation is
between a hungry feline and kind-hearted Bloom:
—Mkgnao!
—O, there you are, Mr. Bloom said, turning from the fire.
The cat mewed in answer and stalked again stiffly round a leg of the table, mewing.
No one had read this delightful little story (The Cats, not Ulysses!) for a very long time and, indeed, it
was almost entirely lost and forgotten. It is a joy to see it appear for the first time ever in print in the United
States.
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A Brief History
In March 2006, Hans E. Jahnke generously donated a battered trunkful of miscellaneous material to the Zurich
James Joyce Foundation, where the leonine Fritz Senn is director. Hans is the stepson of James Joyce’s son George
(Giorgio). He inherited these important papers from his mother, Asta, Giorgio’s second wife. Among many items of
great interest are the letters sent by Joyce to Helen Fleischman, Giorgio’s first wife and Stephen’s mother. Included
is one he penned specially for little Stephen, four years of age, recounting a brief and entertaining children’s story,
The Cats of Copenhagen.
An intimate and enduring relationship had formed between grandfather and grandson, on the occasion of
whose birth on February 15, 1932 (not long after the loss of the author’s own larger-than-life father), James Joyce
composed perhaps his most tender poem, Ecce Puer.
Young life is breathed

On the glass;
The world that was not
Come to pass
(3rd verse)
As The Cats of Copenhagen letter (presumably posted in a red letterbox in Copenhagen) is dated September
5, 1936, we can place it in context with his current travels and plans.
Stephen was staying at the Villa des Roses in Menthon-Saint-Bernard, and Joyce was taking a break in
Denmark. The writer’s finances were precarious; his commitments were complicated and worrisome; and the idea
of escaping Paris to the relative oasis of Copenhagen appealed to him. He spoke passable Danish and liked to say
that, in common with other Dubliners of Viking ancestry, good Danish blood ran in his veins. The Copenhagen

Interlude, he felt, would afford him the much-needed opportunity to relax over a glass of wine (“at bastille en
flaske vin”) and also get some work done (“ar bastille noget”). And while there in Hamlet’s homeland he could
push on the business of a Danish edition of Ulysses (not finally realized until 1949, in translation by Morgens
Boisen). Lastly, any spare time could be devoted to reading over proofs for the long-awaited Bodley Head edition
of Ulysses, the first English edition to be actually printed in England.
As it turned out, his sojourn in Denmark was a great success. He especially liked the letterboxes, and the
redcoated postmen put him in mind of Shaun, dogged postman of Finnegans Wake. He planned to go back to
Copenhagen the next spring and rent a place. He liked the Danes, a “nation of weepers” and a race of “wild men
with soft voices,” as he put it, quite like the Irish. Dublin, of course, was founded one thousand years ago by Danes.
And he used lots of Danish in drafting his then work in progress, Finnegans Wake.
Alas, unlike Finnegan, he was never to return; or so the biographers tell us. The only way to really find out would
be to go there ourselves and see if he ever did manage to sneak in Cats.

About the Author
James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in Dublin, Ireland. His subtle yet frank portrayal of human nature,
coupled with his mastery of language, made him one of the most influential novelists of the twentieth century.
Joyce is best known for his experimental use of language and his exploration of new literary methods. His use
of the “stream-of-consciousness” literary technique reveals the flow of impressions, half thoughts, associations,
hesitations, impulses, and rational thoughts of his characters. The main strength of his masterpiece novel, Ulysses
(1922), lies in the depth of character portrayed using this technique. Joyce’s other major works include Dubliners
(1914), a collection of short stories that portray his native city; a semi-autobiographical novel called A Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man (1916); and Finnegans Wake (1939), an experimental novel that first appeared in the
form of extracts from 1928 to 1937 as Work in Progress. He died in 1941.
About the Illustrator
Casey Sorrow is a cartoonist, printmaker, and illustrator. He was classically trained and raised on a steady diet of
The Muppets, Schulz’s Peanuts, and Kung Fu movies. A rebellious streak and a quick, quirky humor underpin his
artwork and its focus on pop-culture iconography. Casey derives much of his inspiration from his father’s lauded
military service and from the war imagery of vintage comics. He lives and works in Michigan, “America’s High Five.”

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Preface

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Young life is breathed

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About the Illustrator

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First Scribner hardcover edition October 2012

S C R I B N E R and design are registered trademarks

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