Check Out Henri Matisse’s Lovely Illustrations for ‘Ulysses’

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Fun fact: Back in 1935 an American publisher named George Macy paid Henri Matisse $5000 to create a series of etchings for a special edition of Ulysses. According to Open Culture, the story goes that the famed painter never even read Joyce’s massive book, even though he was given a French translation; rather, he decided to base his work on “the original episodes in Homer.” You can imagine how well that went over with Joyce when he found out later. Anyway! Maria Popova of Brain Pickings was lucky enough to recently purchase one of the few copies of the book that’s floating around online, and she’s sharing the wealth by posting scans of all of the fantastic illustrations inside. Head over to her website to check them out now.