In the U.S., today is Groundhog Day wherein we look to a confused, sleepy-eyed rodent to predict when spring will come based on him/her seeing or not seeing his shadow. According to History.com, the first Groundhog Day was celebrated on February 2, 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. This year’s result is in: an early spring awaits!1
In Ireland and Scotland, February 2nd is celebrated as Imbolc. In Celtic tradition, Imbolc marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. In a cultural intermingling of pagan and Christian traditions, Imbolc celebrations honor both the Celtic Goddess Brigid, the deity in charge of fertility, poetry, crafts and prophecy, and Saint Brigid, the Catholic patron saint of Irish nuns, newborns, midwives, dairy maids and cattle.2 Wishing wells to Saint Brigid are sprinkled throughout Ireland; the sacred waters are said to hold healing powers. On a hiking trip to Western Ireland in the mid-aughts, I visited the most famous well to Saint Brigid in County Clare and and offered up a wish, or two.
Imbolc also happens to be the birthday of Irish literary lion, James Joyce (1882-1941), the novelist and poet known for Dubliners (1914), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegan’s Wake (1939) among other works. We’ll get to Mr. Joyce anon. Pressing pause on our regularly scheduled program to announce… a books giveaway!
THE ORCHID HOUR by my writer pal, Nancy Bilyeau is an utterly delicious historical mystery set in 1920’s New York. To win it alongside IRISH EYES, subscribe to History With Hope between February 1-14. Random draw, one winner, both books. Giveaway closes at 12 midnight EST.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already a subscriber in which case yay, and I hope you’ll share this free post with a historical fiction loving friend or family member. If you are new here, and discovered History With Hope through the Substack app, double yay and fáilte!
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Okay, back to history and our Imbolc birthday boy…
Born in Dublin to middle-class parents, James Joyce spent most of his adult life in exile from Ireland, largely due to his book, Ulysses which was banned as obscene, not only in Ireland but in other English-speaking countries, including the U.S. and U.K. Where do you go when you’ve basically been canceled for obscenity? Paris, of course.
It was in 1920s Paris that Joyce would meet every expat writer’s best friend, Sylvia Beach (1887-1962). Miss Beach, nee Nancy Woodbridge Beach, was born in Baltimore, Maryland (my hometown), but lived most of her life in Paris where she opened Shakespeare and Company as a bookshop and lending library in 1919.3 Though not a publisher, Beach hated censorship and adored Joyce, in more or less equal measure. She offered to bankroll publication of the book. Joyce accepted, and she brought out Ulysses in 1922 entirely at her own expense.
In 1934, Joyce accepted a book deal for Ulysses from Random House, which had successfully defended him against the U.S. obscenity charge,4 leaving Miss Beach in a financial lurch. She nearly lost her bookshop and would have were it not for the loyalty of French author André Gide who led a fundraising drive among the Paris literati on her behalf.
Full confession - I’ve not read Ulysses. I did read Dubliners, Joyce’s collection of short stories, in high school. Combing through Joyce’s brooding, brilliant, stream-of-consciousness prose in search of “epiphanies” was a literary scavenger hunt that I and my fellow bookworms undertook with great solemnity and sense of purpose. (To be sixteen again, right?)
At the moment, I’m writing the sequel to Irish Eyes, Stardust, due out later this year, in which Sylvia Beach is a character. On a trip to Paris, Rose takes her granddaughter, Daisy to call on Miss Beach at Shakespeare and Company. I have to take care not to let Miss Beach take over the scene. She’s a talker!
I’ll end here with this video of a 1962 interview with Sylvia Beach in Dublin for the dedication of the James Joyce Tower and Museum.5 Apparently, there were no hard feelings.
You can pick up a signed copy of IRISH EYES at these booksellers:
Barnes & Noble Upper West Side, Manhattan
Barnes & Noble, Brick Plaza, NJ
Book Culture, Manhattan (2 locations)
The Corner Bookstore, Manhattan
Posman Books Chelsea Marketplace, Manhattan
Thunder Road Books, Spring Lake, NJ
The Comfort Zone, Ocean Grove, NJ
Also, find IRISH EYES on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Target, Walmart and wherever books are sold.
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https://abcnews.go.com/US/punxsutawney-phil-predicts-early-spring-after-waking-shadow/story?id=106889637
One of Ireland’s three patron saints, the Catholic Church’s official position is that St. Brigid was a historical person, with accounts of her life written by monks dating back to the 8th century. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/imbolc
Not to be confused with the present day Shakespeare & Co. opened in 1951 by another American, George Whitman. https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/history
https://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/88933/
https://joycetower.ie/
I can't wait to read Irish Eyes.
Happy Writing!