ALS in French, one page both sides, 5.75 x 3.5, 2 Square Robiac letterhead, no date. Handwritten letter to "Suter," in part (translated): "If Madame Suter is in Paris, maybe she could come here for tea time on Wednesday at 4 or 4:30. My wife wishes to talk to her—not about the servants. If not, would you give me a telephone call? How are you? Hope you are well. I have suffered a seventh surgery. It was rather bad this time." In very good to fine condition, with heavy edge creasing.
Joyce took an apartment at 2 Square de Robiac in the 7th arrondissement of Paris during the summer of 1925, during which time he was working on his experimental epic Finnegans Wake. Plagued by health problems over the years, he underwent about a dozen eye surgeries—all performed without general anesthetic—and by 1930 was practically blind in the left eye. His seventh eye operation was performed on December 5, 1925; according to Gordon Bowker in James Joyce: A New Biography, Joyce was 'unable to see lights, suffering continual pain from the operation, weeping oceans of tears, highly nervous, and unable to think straight. He was now dependent on kind people to see him across the road and hail taxis for him. All day, he lay on a couch in a state of complete depression, wanting to work but quite unable to do so.'
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