1910
 
  1917   1922   1923
  1924
 
  1925 - 1931
  1930   1932 - 1933
  DEDICATION    Click on the images for a more detailed view and for a return



1910 08 / 06  TRIESTE
 
and between the snow and the damp and the rain
I got a bad attack of rheumatic inflammation of the iris of the eye.
I had to leave Ireland at once (with black bandages over both my eyes)
and come back here where I was in bed in a half dark room
for close on two months
1917 13 / 03  ZURICH
my sight is still in some danger
15 / 03  ZURICH
a painful - and thus dangerous - illness of the eyes. I am now out of pain and much better and this morning the doctor was optimistic so that I hope it will not be necessary to operate.
19 / 03  ZURICH
for the past month very ill with my eyes and was even in some danger
Now it seems I am much better
22 / 04  ZURICH
I never had an attack that lasted so long as this one.
I have no pain but the consequences this time seem to be rather serious -
I hope always that an operation may be avoided
10 / 05  ZURICH
long and tiresome illness of the eyes
(rheumatic iritis comolicated with synechia and glaucoma)
13 / 05  ZURICH
 It is very tiresome and the pain is rather strong. I am trying to avoid the operation as I dislike the idea of cutting out pieces of the iris at intervals
17 / 07  ZURICH
 the condition of my sight is very unsettled. I cannot read or write very much and it is an illness which seems to have a dulling effect on the brain
1922 27 /10  NICE
 An hour afterwards I felt the first sign of trouble in my eye and the following day I was again in the doctor's hands - I am to have the visit of five leeches in an hour from now and he hopes that by relieving the congestion the attack will not develop. There is no tension. He thinks that as soon as practicable I ought to be operated as the risk is too great. My sight has improved very much even during the inflammation. By raising my head to a certain angle I can see as well through the bad eye es through the good. This means that there is a clear space in the lower part of the nebula on the lens. It seems the operation is not likely to have as damaging effect as if it had been made when the sight was almost totally effaced
25 / 11  PARIS
 My eyes have not been and are not well. I hope to keep down whatever is threatening. I am very tired. Dr Borsch says he would prefer to operate in
6 weeks or so if the eye can be kept calm. if!
1923 06 / 02  PARIS
 I was glad of all these obstacles for I detest the operations
26 / 02  PARIS
 The dionine treatment prescribed by Dr Colin of Nice has dissipated a fair part of the film. Dr Borsch however will not apply it in the strong solution which the Nice doctor prescribed partly I suppose because he is older and more prudent but also because he knows better the pusillanimous nature of his patient.
He prefers to continue the treatment gradually and to wait and see if the film will thin more. He does not believe the dionine will dissipate the film wholly nor was Dr Colin positive of that either. He was as you see a very clever man and all the London doctors who said the film was 'organized' ( that is not fluid but irremovable ) were wrong. Unfortunately this does not mean any improvemet in my power to read or write and for this reason. I had before 1/10 of normal
vision in that eye. Now I have 1/7 or 1/6 but this is only good for
longrange vision. It enabled me to see the lights of the Place da la Concorde which before had been only a blur. Dr Borsch believes that after the operation
I will have 1/2 of normal vision
11 / 03  PARIS
 my sight has slowly improved.
He (Dr Borsch) said I had no glaucoma foudroyant - too that I did well not to be operated in London, that my sight had resisted marvellously - in his opinion
the operation in Zurich was a mistake (though it was well done) as the
exudation flowed over into the incision and reduced the vision of the eye considerably and permanently
1924 02 / 06  PARIS
 I think it would be well to go into the clinic and have it over.
There are so many problems to be solved that I can face only one at a time.
Perhaps in there staring up at darkness I may solve the second.
The weather is dreadful today and 'my sight is growing thicker on me
with the shadows in this place'
27 / 06  PARIS
now seventeen days since the operation which was more unpleasant
than I had expected either because not enough cocaine was used
or becouse of my nervous state
The eye is still bandaged but I am allowed to read as well as I can with the other
I am even glad he (Dr Borsch) made an iridectomy as this is the only
safety valve against the glaucoma if I get another attack of iritis.
whenever I am obliged to lie with my eyes closed I see a cinematograph going on and on and it brings back to my memory things I had almost forgotten
21 / 11  PARIS
 unpleasant news. I have a cateract and am to be operated next Saturday.
This came on me as a suprise. These continued operations are dreadful.
23 / 12  PARIS
 the cateract was removed - difficult in an eye which has withstood attacks for eighteen years. I saw splendid sights for a minute or so. 'The readiness is all'.
There is to be an electric cure when the broken window on my soul can stand more shocks. - had prolonged cinema nights and am extrêmement fatigué
1925 25 / 04  PARIS
 There is a slight, very slight return of vision in the operated eye.
I believe I have to wait some weeks yet. the other eye is not yet cured and I cannot read print at all without 'the loan of a lens to see as much as I once saw'
1926 20 / 01  PARIS
 Even yet I cannot see a light before my eye and have had continual bouts of neuralgic pain in the wound and oceanfuls of tears.
kind people now help me to cross the street and hail taxis for me !!
07 / 06  PARIS
 I would not for my sight's sake be so advanceful as yet as to take my affirmative eachways as to the preceding.
1928 23 / 10  PARIS
 TWILIGHT OF BLINDNESS MADNESS DESCENDS ON SWIFT
Unslow, malswift, pro mean, proh noblesse, Atrahora, Melancolores, nears; whose glauque eyes glitt bedimmed to im ! whose fingrings creep o'er skull : till qwench! asterr mist calls estarr and grauw! honath John raves homes glowcoma
23 /10  PARIS
 three weeks' treatment of injections of arsenic every other day and phosphorues.
The idea apparently was to work on my sight by raising the general nervous tone but it has not succeeded and although they have changed my lenses I still cannot distinguish a word of print except the large headlines in the newspapers.
1931 11 / 03  PARIS
  For my convenience I wear tinted glasses in the street
even when the day is darkish.
1930 01 / 12  ZURICH
A letter from Dr Vogt to James Joyce
 Hochverehrter Herr Joyce!
Besten Dank für Ihren freundlichen Brief.
Ich freue mich sehr, konstatieren zu können, dass das Ergebnis meiner Operation schon jetzt ein erfreuliches ist, und dass die neue Pupille, die ich setzte, sich noch weiter vergrösssern wird. Die Hauptsache ist jetzt, dass Sie sich keiner Erkältung aussetzen, damit nicht ein Rückfall der Iritis eintritt.
Ich kann dann später zunächst die Entfernung des Stars des rechten Auges in Angriff nehmen, und schliesslich - unter allen Vorsichtsmassnahmen - das Nachtstarhäutchen des linken Auges spalten, sofern dies noch nötig erscheinen wird.
Mit herzlichen Grüssen und Wünschen Ihr

Vogt
 My Dear Mr Joyce
Many thanks for your friendly letter. I am very happy to be able to state that the result of my operation is already favourable and that the new pupil which I put in will enlarge itself further. The main thing now is that you should not expore yourself to any colds, so that the iritis will not recur.
Then later I will be able to begin first, the removal of the cateract from the right eye, and finally, with all due precaution, the splitting of the post cateract membrane of the left eye, insofar as this may still be necessary.
With cordial griitings and good wishes

Yours Vogt
1932 22 / 09  NICE
 He (Vogt) injected I don't know what and I had to go back in 3 hours.
It was a test for tension. The result was favourable and he then said he could wait (bad eye). There was no room in the anterior chamber as it was, he would have to cut through the lens to work. This might produce a traumatic iritis which would probably pass over to good eye and perhaps undo all.
He says the capsule will shrink in about 1-1 1/2 years and so leave him some space
1933 30 / 05  ZURICH
 Left eye, the good one, slightly improved since Sept, 1932.
No exudate or precipitation in gap. Artificial gradually opening upwards.
Rate of progress slow. This is an advantage as rapid rate of progress might bring complications. It wd continue 3 or 4 years until

pupil reached 4mm.
Could be hastened by operation but far too dangerous. After 3 years a tiny operation (removal of outer film) may be possible and advisable. Prognosis good.
2nd consultation
Right eye disimproved. Cateract almost completely verkalkt (calcified), no vision. Little sensibility to light. Retina (invisible), certainly in part atrophied. Test of injection made at 1st consultation however gives not unfavorable result as regards probability of glaucoma. Therefor operation still possible - if not made, eye will be blind . If it is made - very difficult; also dangerous for oprated eye which may go blind during op. because of loss of vitreous. If it succeeds still no means of knowing what vision eye may obtain, this depending on retinal condition. For such an operation greatest tranquillity needed.
Asked advantage of such an operation, Vogt said 2 eyes better than 1.
Asked if op. might inperil left eye, V. replied (reversing what he said in Sept. consultation) that if there was a traumatic iritis in right eye after op. wd probably extend to left and undo all the good he believed.
sd if in my place and cd be sure of operator like himself wd run risk.
I am to reflect and let him know in few days. He wd operate now or in Sept.,when in any case I must return to Zurich to have my eye examined.
 
*the operation never took place

DEDICATION

This book was made for Leo Koenders in the Autumn of 2003.
The text is taken from the letters of James Joyce where he writes about the problems with his eyes ('Letters of James Joyce' in three volumes,
published by Faber & Faber Limited, 1957 - 1966, vol 1 edited by Stuart Gilbert, vols 2 and 3 by Richard Ellmann.
The image and the title page were set in 18 pt Palatino and printed with an Epson Stylus 1200 on Rivoli 170 gsm paper.

Special thanks to my son Nick who helped with the making of both the
image and the box.
IAN TYSON  F 84290, St Roman de Malegarde.
Ian Tyson: Blind however: Correspondence 1910 - 1933
© 2004 - 2011 All rights reserved. Collection Leo. J.M. Koenders.

© 2004 - 2011 All rights reserved. Collection Leo. J.M. Koenders.