Child's Tale Sets Cat Among The Publishers

Author James Joyce.

A children's story by James Joyce (below) has been published for the first time by a small press in Ireland. Ithys Press says The Cats of Copenhagen is a ''younger twin sister'' to the previously published Joyce children's story The Cat and the Devil, which told how the devil built a bridge over a French river in one night. Publisher Anastasia Herbert called it a ''little gem'' that ''reflects Joyce's lighter side, his sense of humour, which can fairly be called odd or even somewhat absurdist''.
Like its predecessor, The Cats of Copenhagen was written in a letter to Joyce's grandchild, Stephen James Joyce, while the author was in Denmark and four-year-old Stephen was in France. The tale is ''exquisite, surprising, and with a keen, almost anarchic subtext'', said Ithys, which has printed a run of 200 illustrated copies, priced from €300 ($370) to €1200.
Ms Herbert said: ''For an adult, Cats reads as an anti-establishment text, critical of fat cats and some authority figures.'' The letter in which the story was found, dated September 5, 1936, was donated to the Zurich James Joyce Foundation. But the publication is controversial. The foundation has called it an ''outrage'', stressing that it had not granted permission for the book's release.

A poster advertising the launch of James Joyce's The Cats of Copenhagen.