Maria Jolas

Maria Jolas (at left) at a pre-Bloomsday ceremony dedicating a park bench to James Joyce and his father, John Stanislaus Joyce.

Used with permission from the Irish Times, Dublin, Wednesday, June 15, 1977. Photograph by Eddie Kelly. https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/the-times-we-lived-in-combining-the-da…

Maria Jolas

Born:

1893 Jan 12th
Louisville, KY

Died:

1987 Mar 4th
Paris, France

Gender:

Occupation:

Authored By: Anna Mukamal

Edited By: Claire Battershill, Helen Southworth

Maria Jolas (née McDonald) grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, with a “traditional liberal Jeffersonian southern upbringing” in a “large family, neither rich nor poor.”[1] After attending boarding school in New York, she left the United States to pursue her studies in vocal performance in Berlin and Paris during the First World War. In 1925, Maria met Eugene Jolas, the head of a column called “Rambles through Literary Paris” for the Paris edition of The Chicago Tribune. When accompanying Eugene to an event at the P.E.N. Club, Maria first met James Joyce, who later became a very close friend and whose legacy she helped to shape.[2]

Maria and Eugene were married in New York in January 1926. After living briefly in New Orleans, the couple moved to Paris, where Eugene—who had grown up an American in exile on the Franco-German frontier, in multilingual Lorraine[3]—continued to dream of “a frontierless world and ‘a new language, a supertongue for intercontinental expression.’”[4] In conversation with Maria, Eugene decided that the best way to accomplish this was an international literary magazine that would “combine the best of America with the best of Europe.”[5] The idea materialized in the avant-garde interwar literary magazine transition (1927-1938), which Joyce famously dubbed “Transocean” in the section of Work in Progress he published in transition no.4 (July 1927).[6]

The collaborators lost no time; as Maria recounts, “It was in December [1926] that the actual work got under way. I undertook all the business and general secretarial part and the two men [Eugene and co-editor Elliot Paul] were to be responsible for the editorial part.”[7] Maria’s 1987 obituary also emphasizes her choice “to manage the business side of the review.”[8] She writes of her active roles in transition’s management, “There was, in fact, ‘never a dull moment,’ and I soon realized that I would need every ounce of my maniacal insistence on material order to remain on top of the paper chaos that these two men were able to create in a few hours.”[9]

While this is not the first scholarly account of transition to acknowledge Maria’s contributions,[10] it foregrounds not only her “secretarial” work, but also her role as co-creator and catalytic creative force. In other words, it gives equal weight to each of the terms with which McMillan formulates Maria’s role “as office manager, translator, and most importantly as unnamed but ever-present consulting editor.”[11] One prominent sense in which Maria co-created transition is her role as a translator of its contents; her proficiency in French and German allowed her to take on some of the translation work of Eugene and co-editor Elliot Paul, who did not include funds for translators in the budget.[12] The transition bibliography published in February 1933 lists 28 translations by Maria between the magazine’s 1927 launch and February 1933—among them The Work of Man Ray by Robert Desnos and Whither French Literature by Philippe Soupault—which, while certainly less than the 100-plus of Eugene’s, is not an insignificant investment of intellectual labor.[13] In many cases Maria was also directly responsible for establishing and negotiating transition’s reception, particularly in the United States. In 1928, for instance, André Breton gave Maria carte blanche to negotiate publication of “an official transition anthology” of textes surréalistes in English translation; yet, perhaps surprisingly, at least six major American publishing houses to which Maria pitched the idea “seemed to think [surrealism] was only a minor radical effusion in France that would come to nothing.”[14]

Aside from her professional capacities with transition, Maria was a fiercely independent woman. She reflects in her memoir that her “late romantic flowering” was “due to my desire for independent action and thought, which may well have frightened off most of the young men of my generation.”[15] She was also governed by a deep sense of justice, as evidenced by her insistence on the timely publication of the “Testimony Against Gertrude Stein” as a supplement to transition no.23 (1935) to refute Stein’s misrepresentation of Elliot Paul as transition’s editor in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1934). Maria’s sense of justice also manifests in her 1942 New Republic article, which defends against charges that the themes of Joyce’s fiction are “not seeming terribly important,” urging naysayers to reconsider: “They will find, first of all, a very young man indignant at the hypocrisy, stupidity, and injustice he saw about him. Later, they will find him passionately concerned with man’s relation to God, with his terrible choice between this world and the next, with the mystery of artistic creation, with the eternal problems of good and evil, of sex and death.”[16] An underexplored woman in the history of 20th-century publishing, Maria concludes the biographic “Dateline” in her memoir drafts, “What useful spiritual legacy for my descendants?”[17]

[1] Jolas, Maria and Mary Ann Caws. “Dateline, by Maria Jolas.” Maria Jolas, Woman of Action: A Memoir and Other Writings, Edited by Mary Ann Caws, University of South Carolina Press, 2004, Columbia, 1.

[2] Ibid., 13.

[3] Jolas, Eugene. Man from Babel. Edited, Annotated, and Introduced by Andreas Kramer and Rainer Rumold, Yale University Press, 1998, New Haven and London, 5, 8.

[4] Ibid., 2 (qtd. in Mansanti 729).

[5] Ibid., 27.

[6] Mansanti, Céline. “Between Modernisms: transition (1927-1938)”. The Oxford Critical and Cultural

History of Modernist Magazines, Volume II: North America 1894-1960, Edited by Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker, Oxford University Press, 2012, Oxford, 731.

[7] Jolas, Maria, Georges Braque, Eugene Jolas, Henri Matisse, André Salmon, and Tristan Tzara. “Testimony against Gertrude Stein.” transition no. 23, 1935, pp. 8-12, AP4.T77 transition Archives. Stanford University Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto, CA. 18 May 2018, 10.

[8] McDowell, Edwin. “Maria Jolas, 94, a Translator and Paris Magazine Founder”. The New York Times, 7 March 1987, New York, p. 1.33.

[9] Jolas, Maria and Mary Ann Caws. “Dateline, by Maria Jolas.” Maria Jolas, Woman of Action: A Memoir and Other Writings. Edited by Mary Ann Caws, University of South Carolina Press, 2004, Columbia, 85-86.

[10] Maria’s name does surface in scholarship on transition publishedin the 1990s and 2000s—Céline Mansanti, for example, acknowledges, though relegates to a footnote, that “transition was edited with the help of Eugene Jolas’s wife Maria” and that it was only “thanks to Maria’s financial support [that] transition’s first issue came out in April 1927.” Mansanti, Céline. “Between Modernisms: transition (1927-1938)”. The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, Volume II: North America 1894-1960, Edited by Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker, Oxford University Press, 2012, Oxford, 718, 729. As Maria recounts, her father’s death in 1924 left her “financially independent,” which made financing transition possible (“Dateline, by Maria Jolas” 2).

[11] McMillan, Dougald. Transition: The History of a Literary Era 1927-1938. Calder and Boyars, 1975, London, 13.

[12] Ibid., 22.

[13] Most elusive in an archival sense is McMillan’s gesturing at Maria’s role “as office manager, translator, and most importantly as unnamed but ever-present consulting editor” (13).

[14] McMillan, Dougald. Transition: The History of a Literary Era 1927-1938. Calder and Boyars, 1975, London, 81. The translated texts would have included both translated surrealist texts from transition and images of surrealist painters, including Masson, Ernst, Tanguy, Chirico, and Magritte (Caws 95).

[15] Jolas, Maria and Mary Ann Caws. Maria Jolas, Woman of Action: A Memoir and Other Writings. Edited by Mary Ann Caws, University of South Carolina Press, 2004, Columbia, 77.

[16] Jolas, Maria. “Joyce as Revolutionary.” The New Republic, 9 November 1942, New York, 613.

[17] Jolas, Maria and Mary Ann Caws. “Dateline, by Maria Jolas.” Maria Jolas, Woman of Action: A Memoir and Other Writings, Edited by Mary Ann Caws, University of South Carolina Press, 2004, Columbia, 5.

[18] Maria Jolas became an extremely well-renowned translator (from French to English) of the works of Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) and Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999). I have included below a selection of her post-transition translations.

 

Further reading:

Aubert, Jacques and Maria Jolas. Joyce & Paris: 1902 ... 1920-1940 ... 1975: Actes Du Cinquième Symposium International James Joyce, Paris 16-20 Juin 1975. Université de Lille, 1979, Paris.

Jolas, Eugene. “Frontierless Decade”. transition no. 27, April-May 1938, pp. 7-9, AP4.T77 transition Archives. Stanford University Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto, CA. 18 May 2018.

___________. transition workshop. The Vanguard Press, Inc., 1949, New York.

Jolas, Eugene and Elliot Paul. “Introduction.” transition no. 1, April 1927, pp. 135-138,AP4.T77 transition Archives. Stanford University Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto, CA. 18 May 2018.

Jolas, Eugene and Robert Sage. Transition Stories: Twenty-three stories from “transition” selected and edited by Eugene Jolas and Robert Sage. Walter V. McKee, 1929, New York.

Joyce, James, and Maria Jolas. Pastimes. Joyce Memorial Fund Committee, 1941, New York.

McDonald, Roxanne. "Eugene Jolas." Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2013.

North, Michael. “Introduction: Mechanical Recording and the Modern Arts” and “transition: The Movies, The Readies, and the Revolution of the Word”. Camera Works: Photography and the Twentieth-Century Word, Oxford University Press, 2005, Oxford.

"transition Bibliography," transition no. 22, February 1933, pp. 157-158, AP4.T77 transition Archives. Stanford University Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto, CA. 18 May 2018. 

 

Archival resources

Stanford, CA, Stanford University Special Collections, Stanford University, “Transition” (1927-1938), AP4.T77. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/399001 

Cambridge, MA, Houghton Library, Harvard University, “Papers of the magazine Transition” (1933-1941), MS Am 2068. https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/24/resources/1294  

New Haven, CT, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, “Eugène and Maria Jolas papers” (1879-1986), GEN MSS 108: http://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=beinecke:jolas&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

See also:https://puidevarchivesspace.library.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/532 and link to finding aid: http://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/532.pdf

Jolas, Eugene. Man from Babel. Edited, Annotated, and Introduced by Andreas Kramer and Rainer Rumold, Yale University Press, 1998, New Haven and London.

Jolas, Maria. “Joyce as Revolutionary.” The New Republic, 9 November 1942, New York, 613.

Jolas, Maria and Mary Ann Caws. Maria Jolas, Woman of Action: A Memoir and Other Writings, Edited by Mary Ann Caws, University of South Carolina Press, 2004, Columbia.

Jolas, Maria, Georges Braque, Eugene Jolas, Henri Matisse, André Salmon, and Tristan Tzara. “Testimony against Gertrude Stein.” transition no. 23, 1935, pp. 8-12, AP4.T77 transition Archives. Stanford University Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto, CA. 18 May 2018.

Mansanti, Céline. “Between Modernisms: transition (1927-1938).” The Oxford Critical and Cultural

History of Modernist Magazines, Volume II: North America 1894-1960, Edited by Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker, Oxford University Press, 2012, Oxford.

McDowell, Edwin. “Maria Jolas, 94, a Translator and Paris Magazine Founder.” The New York Times, 7 March 1987, New York, 1.33.

McMillan, Dougald. Transition: The History of a Literary Era 1927-1938. Calder and Boyars, 1975, London.

Jolas, Maria. “Black Thoughts.” transition, edited by Eugene Jolas and Elliot Paul, Number10, January 1928, pp. 118-22, Neuilly.

Jolas, Maria and Mary Ann Caws. Maria Jolas, Woman of Action: A Memoir and Other Writings. Edited by Mary Ann Caws, University of South Carolina Press, 2004, Columbia.

Jolas, Maria, Georges Braque, Eugene Jolas, Henri Matisse, André Salmon, and Tristan Tzara. “Testimony against Gertrude Stein.” transition no. 23, 1935, pp. 8-12, AP4.T77 transition Archives. Stanford University Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto, CA. 18 May 2018.

 

Translations for transition[18]

Editorial policy note: My reference for this list is Silet, Charles L. P. transition: an Author Index. The Whiston Publishing Company, 1980, Troy, New York. For the translations, I have chosen to preserve both Silet’s citation format and his idiosyncratic versions of Maria’s name, the latter of which reflects how the translations were actually documented within the respective transition issues. Otherwise, I have alphabetized the translations rather than listing them chronologically, for ease of locating all of Maria’s translations of a given author.

I have also preserved Silet’s shorthand for denoting the translated piece’s genre, the legend for which is as follows:

A - Article

D - Drama

E - Editorial

F - Fiction

I - Illustration

M - Music

P - Poem

R - Review

 

Auriol, Jean-George, “Whither the French Cinema,” translated from the French manuscript by Maria McD. Jolas. 15 (February 1929), 257-63. (A)

Barroso, Gustave, “Astronomical Legend,” translated from the author’s French arrangement by Maria Jolas. 23 (July 1935), 52. (F)

Barroso, Gustave, “Astronomic Myth (Bororos Indians of Brazil),” translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 25 (Fall 1936), 125. (F)

Breton, André, “Fragment from ‘Mad Love’,” translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 17 (April-May 1938), 41-47. (F)

Buffet-Picabia, Gabrielle, “Arthur Carvan and American Dada,” translated from the French manuscript by Maria Jolas. 27 (April-May 1938), 314-21. (A)

Camille, Georgette, “The Accursed,” translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 12 (March 1928), 131. (P)

Le Corbusier, [Untitled], translated from the French stenographic redaction of Le Corbusier’s address by Maria Jolas. 25 (Fall 1936), 109-118. (A)

Crémieux, Benjamin, “The Rule of Words,” translated from the French by Maria McD. Jolas. 19-20 (June 1930), 189-93. (A)

Desnos, Robert, “Midnight at Two O’Clock: An Experiment in modern magic,” translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 14 (Fall 1928),189-94. (F) 

Desnos, Robert, “The Work of Man Ray,” translated from the French by Maria McD. Jolas. 15 (February 1929), 264-66. (A)

Fargue, Léon-Paul, “The Drug,” translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 8 (November 1927), 9-16. (F)

Fargue, Léon-Paul, “Tumult,” translated from the French by Maria McDonald Jolas. 11 (February 1928), 59-62. (F) 

Faÿ, Bernard, “Travel and Flight,” translated from the French by Maria McDonald Jolas. 11 (February 1928), 141-50. (A)

Faÿ, Bernard, “Essay on Poetry,” translated from the French manuscript by Maria McDonald Jolas. 19-20 (June 1930), 241-47. (A)

Laporte, René, “A Little Later,” translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 12 (March 1928), 133. (P)

Léger, Fernand. [Untitled], translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 25 (Fall 1936), 104-108. (A)

Levesque, Jacques-Henry, “Prisoners of the Infinite,” translated from the French by Maria McD. Jolas. 15 (February 1929), 267-72. (A)

Noll, Marcel, “From a Note Book,” translated by Maria Jolas. 12 (March 1928), 63-69. (F)

Paulhan, Jean, “Jacob Cow: The Pirate, or If Words Are Signs,” translated from the French by Maria Jolas. 21 (March 1932), 286-98. (A)

Petitjean, Armand M. “Joyce and Mythology: Mythology and Joyce,” translated from the French manuscript by Maria McDonald Jolas. 23 (July 1935), 133-42. (A)

Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges, “Confiteor,” translated from the French manuscript by Maria McDonald Jolas. 9 (December 1927), 41-56. (F)

Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges,“Confiteor,” translated from the French mss. by Maria McDonald Jolas. 10 (January 1928), 14-29. (F)

Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges,“The Eighth Day of the Week (A Scenario),” translated from the French by Maria McDonald Jolas. 19-20 (June 1930), 70-83. (F)

Roussel, Raymond, “From: African Impressions,” translated by Maria Jolas. 12 (March 1928), 81-86. (F)

Schuwer, Camille, “Hamlet, or the Ghost,” translated from the French mss. By Maria Jolas. 21 (March 1932), 226-39. (A)

Soupault, Philippe, “Hymn to Liberty,” translated from the French by Maria McDonald Jolas. 10 (January 1928), 69-74. (F)

Soupault, Philippe, “Whither French Literature,” translated from the French manuscript by Maria McD. Jolas, 16-17 (June 1929), 283-88. (A)

Vitrac, Roger, “The Work of G. L. Roux,” translated from the French by Maria McD. Jolas. 16-17 (June 1929), 289-90. (A)

  

Selected post-transition translations:

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Translated by Maria Jolas, Orion Press, 1964, New York.

Brancusi, Constantin and Carola Giedion-Welcker. Constantin Brancusi. Translated by Maria Jolas and Anne Leroy, G. Braziller, 1959, New York.

Sarraute, Nathalie. Collected Plays. Translated by Maria Jolas and Barbara Wright, J. Calder, 1980, London.

Sarraute, Nathalie. Tropisms. Translated by Maria Jolas,G. Braziller, 1967, New York.

Sarraute, Nathalie. The Golden Fruits. Translated by Maria Jolas, G. Braziller, 1964, New York.

Schnapp, Alain, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. The French Student Uprising, November 1967 - June 1968: An Analytical Record. Translated by Maria Jolas, Beacon Press, 1971, Boston (originally published in Journal de la commune étudiante).