Visits from James Joyce

Abstract

Soon he came to the point: Sullivan, a very great Irish singer. Now, Sullivan was not getting the recognition he deserved and this must be set right at once. Well, Lady Cunard, my mother, was a very great friend of the orchestra leader, Sir Thomas Beecham, who should be made to realise that Sullivan must be engaged forthwith. Had Beecham ever heard of him? I could not say. Why was Beecham not interested? Well, what he, Joyce, wanted me to do was to use all my influence with Lady Cunard so that Beecham should hear, and engage Sullivan. I presume Joyce thought this quite simple. What he probably did not know was that my relations with her were not of the friendliest; at any rate, I had no ‘influence ’with her whatsoever — as I now tried to make clear. Joyce would have none of that and brushed it aside. I assured him that I would, of course, tell her that he had come to see me about the matter; more than that I could not possibly do. I thought he seemed annoyed and did not believe me. Sullivan must be engaged. And when I reminded him that he knew Lady Cunard himself and that she would be likely to listen to him, that too was brushed aside, and somehow, I did not feel like recalling to him that she had been very instrumental indeed, in 1917 or so, in obtaining public recognition for his great talent as a writer, recognition that could not have been more official, and on a financial plane, too.

Nancy Cunard: Brave Poet, Indomitable Rebel, 1896–1965, ed. Hugh Ford (Philadelphia, Penn.: Chilton Book Co., 1968) pp. 81–2.