As I was reading the new James Joyce biography, I started to wonder whatever happened to the patronage system?
Joyce had a knack for picking up patrons, for making it clear that he was a true genius, that he could not do something as gauche as work for his money, and his works of earthshaking brilliance would never find form if he and his family were not financially supported. As so here came a number of heiresses, willing to hand over large sums of money and not ask too many questions about where these important novels might be.
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