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Ellmann's Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and Its Maker
The story of the most acclaimed literary biography of the twentieth century—an ingeniously plotted, behind-the-scenes account of how the literary critic and scholar Richard Ellmann shaped James Joyce’s reputation.
Richard Ellmann’s James Joyce, published in 1959, was hailed by Anthony Burgess as “the greatest literary biography of the twentieth century.” Frank Kermode thought the book would “fix Joyce’s image for a generation,” a prediction that was if anything too cautious. The biography won the National Book Award and durably secured Joyce’s standing as a preeminent modernist.
Ellmann’s Joyce provides the biography of the biography, exploring how Ellmann came to his subject, gained the cooperation of Joyce’s family and estate, shrewdly, doggedly collected vital papers and interviews, placated publishers, thwarted competitors, and carefully balanced narrative with literary analysis. Ellmann’s Joyce also removes the veil from the biographer—richly rewarded in public, admirable in private life, but also possessed of a startling secret life. An eminent biographer himself, Zachary Leader constructs a powerful argument not only in support of Ellmann’s intellectual and artistic claims but also on behalf of literary biography generally. In the process, he takes readers on a rare tour through midcentury publishing houses in New York and London, as well as the corridors and classrooms of elite universities, from Yale to Oxford. The influence of Ellmann’s book, recognized instantly, persists to this day, among literary scholars and Joyce fans alike.
Filled with surprising details, tales of intrigue from the heyday of literary publishing, and intimate portraits of the Joyce and Ellmann families, Ellmann’s Joyce is as immersive as a walk around town with Leopold Bloom and as moving as the thickly drifted snow on Michael Furey’s grave.
Richard Ellmann’s James Joyce, published in 1959, was hailed by Anthony Burgess as “the greatest literary biography of the twentieth century.” Frank Kermode thought the book would “fix Joyce’s image for a generation,” a prediction that was if anything too cautious. The biography won the National Book Award and durably secured Joyce’s standing as a preeminent modernist.
Ellmann’s Joyce provides the biography of the biography, exploring how Ellmann came to his subject, gained the cooperation of Joyce’s family and estate, shrewdly, doggedly collected vital papers and interviews, placated publishers, thwarted competitors, and carefully balanced narrative with literary analysis. Ellmann’s Joyce also removes the veil from the biographer—richly rewarded in public, admirable in private life, but also possessed of a startling secret life. An eminent biographer himself, Zachary Leader constructs a powerful argument not only in support of Ellmann’s intellectual and artistic claims but also on behalf of literary biography generally. In the process, he takes readers on a rare tour through midcentury publishing houses in New York and London, as well as the corridors and classrooms of elite universities, from Yale to Oxford. The influence of Ellmann’s book, recognized instantly, persists to this day, among literary scholars and Joyce fans alike.
Filled with surprising details, tales of intrigue from the heyday of literary publishing, and intimate portraits of the Joyce and Ellmann families, Ellmann’s Joyce is as immersive as a walk around town with Leopold Bloom and as moving as the thickly drifted snow on Michael Furey’s grave.
464 pages, Hardcover
Published May 6, 2025
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174 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 14, 2025
This is a biography of a biographer. Richard Ellman wrote "James Joyce". The first edition was published in 1959. It was immediately acknowledged as the best biography of Joyce. It is considered by many to be the finest modern literary biography. The second revised edition, published in 1982, won the National Book Award and solidified Ellman's reputation as a great biographer.
Leader has written a detailed and well researched life of Ellman. There is a huge pile of documents to work from. Ellman left 450 boxes of papers documenting his personal and professional life. His family all wrote each other regularly throughout their lives. He kept drafts of all of his writing. There is a pile of correspondence from his years of arranging interviews with everyone who knew Joyce.
Ellman's life was not very exciting. He decided, at an early age, that he wanted to be an English professor. His academic career was interrupted by WW2. He served in the Navy in a variety of clerical or desk jobs. He was posted to Paris and London. He finished his studies at Yale and was awarded a PhD in 1947.
He was a brilliant student. He regularly won academic prizes and fellowships. His first books were on W. B. Yeats. In 1952 he decided he was going to write the definitive Joyce biography. Joyce died in 1941. There were many people still alive who knew Joyce. Joyce's letters, drafts and papers were scattered all over Europe and America. Many of them were owned by collectors or family. Ellman knew he had taken on a huge project.
Leader details the stories of how Ellman convinced people to be interviewed and gained access to the previously privately held papers. Ellman was charming and had credibility as a recognized academic. He was also a very hard worker. He spent years working on getting access to some papers and interviews.
Ellman had a calm professorial manner, but Leader shows his wildly competitive side. Ellman actively worked to restrict the release of some papers until his biography came out, so he wouldn't get scooped on his new material. The biography was a huge undertaking, and Leader is very good at showing what was required.
Ellman was married to an accomplished professor who published some important feminist books. He seems to have had a good relationship with his children. (His daughter Lucy was nominated in 2019 for a Booker Prize for her novel "Ducks, Newburyport"). Everyone who worked with him seems to have respected him. Leader does not say it explicitly, but he comes off as a very proper and disciplined man without much of a sense of humor. He had 100s of professional acquaintances, but he doesn't seem to have had many long, close friendships.
The biography attempts to understand Joyce as a man and a writer. Ellmann said at one point, "I feel it would be shirking my duty as a biographer not to give Joyce the same attention that he gives Bloom". That is, when you think of it, an enormous task to undertake.
Leader does a good job showing how Ellman's biographical approach was out of step with modern literary criticism which is focused only on the text and dismisses the value of biography and history in understanding a literary work. Ellman's book is a convincing case for the value of biography, done right, to understanding the work.
I did get bogged down in some of the stories about tracking down and getting access to documents or the letters, calls and connections used to get someone to agree to an interview, although it does illustrate the amazing effort that went into the book.
I look forward, in years to come, to the biography of Zachery Leader, the biographer of Richard Ellmann, the biographer of James Joyce.
Leader has written a detailed and well researched life of Ellman. There is a huge pile of documents to work from. Ellman left 450 boxes of papers documenting his personal and professional life. His family all wrote each other regularly throughout their lives. He kept drafts of all of his writing. There is a pile of correspondence from his years of arranging interviews with everyone who knew Joyce.
Ellman's life was not very exciting. He decided, at an early age, that he wanted to be an English professor. His academic career was interrupted by WW2. He served in the Navy in a variety of clerical or desk jobs. He was posted to Paris and London. He finished his studies at Yale and was awarded a PhD in 1947.
He was a brilliant student. He regularly won academic prizes and fellowships. His first books were on W. B. Yeats. In 1952 he decided he was going to write the definitive Joyce biography. Joyce died in 1941. There were many people still alive who knew Joyce. Joyce's letters, drafts and papers were scattered all over Europe and America. Many of them were owned by collectors or family. Ellman knew he had taken on a huge project.
Leader details the stories of how Ellman convinced people to be interviewed and gained access to the previously privately held papers. Ellman was charming and had credibility as a recognized academic. He was also a very hard worker. He spent years working on getting access to some papers and interviews.
Ellman had a calm professorial manner, but Leader shows his wildly competitive side. Ellman actively worked to restrict the release of some papers until his biography came out, so he wouldn't get scooped on his new material. The biography was a huge undertaking, and Leader is very good at showing what was required.
Ellman was married to an accomplished professor who published some important feminist books. He seems to have had a good relationship with his children. (His daughter Lucy was nominated in 2019 for a Booker Prize for her novel "Ducks, Newburyport"). Everyone who worked with him seems to have respected him. Leader does not say it explicitly, but he comes off as a very proper and disciplined man without much of a sense of humor. He had 100s of professional acquaintances, but he doesn't seem to have had many long, close friendships.
The biography attempts to understand Joyce as a man and a writer. Ellmann said at one point, "I feel it would be shirking my duty as a biographer not to give Joyce the same attention that he gives Bloom". That is, when you think of it, an enormous task to undertake.
Leader does a good job showing how Ellman's biographical approach was out of step with modern literary criticism which is focused only on the text and dismisses the value of biography and history in understanding a literary work. Ellman's book is a convincing case for the value of biography, done right, to understanding the work.
I did get bogged down in some of the stories about tracking down and getting access to documents or the letters, calls and connections used to get someone to agree to an interview, although it does illustrate the amazing effort that went into the book.
I look forward, in years to come, to the biography of Zachery Leader, the biographer of Richard Ellmann, the biographer of James Joyce.
December 19, 2025
19/30
Zachary Leader’s Ellmann’s Joyce is a biography of a biographer—a rare and fascinating genre that tracks not just Richard Ellmann’s life but the creation, context, and legacy of his 1959 James Joyce, widely considered the greatest literary biography of the twentieth century. Leader’s account offers readers an immersive behind-the-scenes look at how one monumental work was researched, crafted, negotiated, and defended in the mid-century worlds of publishing and academia.
The book is structured in two main parts. The first portion traces Ellmann’s life before Joyce-his upbringing in Michigan, his scholarly evolution at Yale and Northwestern, his naval intelligence work during World War II, and the early formation of his intellectual style. Leader paints Ellmann as both an earnest scholar and a tenacious researcher, influenced by his education, his encounters with literary figures such as Yeats’s widow, and his deeply analytical temperament.
The second half details the making of Ellmann’s Joyce. Leader brings to life the multifaceted challenges Ellmann faced: securing exclusive access to vital papers; navigating rival scholars and publishers; negotiating with Joyce’s family and estate; and balancing narrative depth with literary analysis. This part reads almost like a narrative thriller of academic intrigue-Ellmann maneuvering through archives, placating or outwitting competitors, and meticulously assembling the materials that would anchor his definitive study of Joyce.
Leader also explores the personal dimensions of Ellmann’s life-his marriage to Mary Donahue, his domestic responsibilities, and a later-in-life affair that, while treated briefly, reveals the tensions between scholarly focus and personal complexity. Some reviewers note that the book’s biographical coverage beyond the Joyce project feels shorter or less detailed, suggesting that Ellmann’s later work and other achievements remain underexplored.
What makes Ellmann’s Joyce particularly engaging-beyond the archival detail and academic drama-is its metabiographical lens. Leader repeatedly foregrounds the idea that biography is itself a creative act: a process of selection, framing, narrative construction, and interpretation. He shows how Ellmann’s choices-what to include, what to omit, how to balance personal anecdote with literary context-shaped not only Joyce’s posthumous reputation but the very way modernist literature is understood.
Zachary Leader’s Ellmann’s Joyce is a biography of a biographer—a rare and fascinating genre that tracks not just Richard Ellmann’s life but the creation, context, and legacy of his 1959 James Joyce, widely considered the greatest literary biography of the twentieth century. Leader’s account offers readers an immersive behind-the-scenes look at how one monumental work was researched, crafted, negotiated, and defended in the mid-century worlds of publishing and academia.
The book is structured in two main parts. The first portion traces Ellmann’s life before Joyce-his upbringing in Michigan, his scholarly evolution at Yale and Northwestern, his naval intelligence work during World War II, and the early formation of his intellectual style. Leader paints Ellmann as both an earnest scholar and a tenacious researcher, influenced by his education, his encounters with literary figures such as Yeats’s widow, and his deeply analytical temperament.
The second half details the making of Ellmann’s Joyce. Leader brings to life the multifaceted challenges Ellmann faced: securing exclusive access to vital papers; navigating rival scholars and publishers; negotiating with Joyce’s family and estate; and balancing narrative depth with literary analysis. This part reads almost like a narrative thriller of academic intrigue-Ellmann maneuvering through archives, placating or outwitting competitors, and meticulously assembling the materials that would anchor his definitive study of Joyce.
Leader also explores the personal dimensions of Ellmann’s life-his marriage to Mary Donahue, his domestic responsibilities, and a later-in-life affair that, while treated briefly, reveals the tensions between scholarly focus and personal complexity. Some reviewers note that the book’s biographical coverage beyond the Joyce project feels shorter or less detailed, suggesting that Ellmann’s later work and other achievements remain underexplored.
What makes Ellmann’s Joyce particularly engaging-beyond the archival detail and academic drama-is its metabiographical lens. Leader repeatedly foregrounds the idea that biography is itself a creative act: a process of selection, framing, narrative construction, and interpretation. He shows how Ellmann’s choices-what to include, what to omit, how to balance personal anecdote with literary context-shaped not only Joyce’s posthumous reputation but the very way modernist literature is understood.
December 22, 2025
Certainly for a specialist reader. this book is a biography of the biographer of James Joyce. To this day. there really is only one monumental book about the entirety of James Joyces's life and that is the book by Richard Ellmann. It was written by an academic who tirelessly searched own leads, including the remaining survivors of his lifetime and the carefully guarded letters themselves, in order to write the definitive book the author who was still controversial and ahead of his time in the 1950s, when Ellmann's book was written.
The first half of the book is a biography of the biographer himself, his upbringing, his family life and career, and his decision to explore the life of James Joyce. Joyce wasn't unheard of by any means but was seen as more avant garde until this point in academia. His life was certainly far less known, and his family possessed the remaining personal effects. After nearly 200 years of the life of Ellmann, we then proceed to his tracking down and interpreting of the literary effects. How did Joyce construct this complex piece? What occurred in his writers' mind to make this all work (that we can glean)?
I'm not sure this book entirely works. I was tempted to give it three stars but I gave it four for the sheer chutzpah of crafting such a niche narrative. It is certainly not for the casual fan or reader. It is not necessarily even for the casual academic. However, if you are a patient reader with an interest in Joyce and in the creation of a monumental literary biography, and have patience, this book might be for you. The chapters are about 30 pages each so you could read a chapter a day and be done in two weeks. One thing is certain: you definitely need to like James Joyce before undertaking it, just like Ellmann.
The first half of the book is a biography of the biographer himself, his upbringing, his family life and career, and his decision to explore the life of James Joyce. Joyce wasn't unheard of by any means but was seen as more avant garde until this point in academia. His life was certainly far less known, and his family possessed the remaining personal effects. After nearly 200 years of the life of Ellmann, we then proceed to his tracking down and interpreting of the literary effects. How did Joyce construct this complex piece? What occurred in his writers' mind to make this all work (that we can glean)?
I'm not sure this book entirely works. I was tempted to give it three stars but I gave it four for the sheer chutzpah of crafting such a niche narrative. It is certainly not for the casual fan or reader. It is not necessarily even for the casual academic. However, if you are a patient reader with an interest in Joyce and in the creation of a monumental literary biography, and have patience, this book might be for you. The chapters are about 30 pages each so you could read a chapter a day and be done in two weeks. One thing is certain: you definitely need to like James Joyce before undertaking it, just like Ellmann.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2025
This is a very well conceived, equally well written study of a biography that came to have almost as much of a influential reputation as the books of its subject. The first half of the book is a skilfully written, always interesting biography of Ellmann up to the time of his start on Joyce. Leader has nothing to prove as a life writer of course, given his superb books on Kingsley Amis and Saul Bellow, and he makes Ellmann as compelling a subject as his previous studies. We also get the considerable bonus of a detailed account of Ellmann’s book on Yeats (Yeats: The Man and the Masks), pretty much a straight port of his PhD text, and a book which paved the way for Ellmann’s approach to Joyce. As Ellmann makes clear that is a different type of book in some ways, a sometimes imperfectly negotiated balance between intellectual and straight biography, but it’s fascinating to observe how Ellmann learned from that.
The narrative when it moves to the Joyce biography is completely gripping. Leader took a gamble formally and substantively in dividing the book as he does, but it absolutely pays off. He somehow does to the Joyce Biography what Ellmann did to Joyce. It’s quite something to have pulled off. Be warned though this is a book which has a sort of Russian Doll effect. I read Ellmann’s Joyce a long time ago. I instantly felt I needed to read it again. (OUP please put it out in ebook!) Then of course there is how much rereading of Joyce one should do…But, the best books always have this effect.
The narrative when it moves to the Joyce biography is completely gripping. Leader took a gamble formally and substantively in dividing the book as he does, but it absolutely pays off. He somehow does to the Joyce Biography what Ellmann did to Joyce. It’s quite something to have pulled off. Be warned though this is a book which has a sort of Russian Doll effect. I read Ellmann’s Joyce a long time ago. I instantly felt I needed to read it again. (OUP please put it out in ebook!) Then of course there is how much rereading of Joyce one should do…But, the best books always have this effect.
September 6, 2025
I love biographies. This is one of the best.
November 27, 2025
Reading this book, it occurred to me that I might indeed have the James Joyce problem my wife has been telling me I have for years now.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews