Letter from Lucia Joyce to Livia Veneziani Schmitz, Paris, 25th January 1931:
«Dear Mrs. Schmitz, […] A long time ago, he made it a rule that he would not write a preface to his own or another’s book or notes of explanation or give an interview or deliver a lecture. […] He says moreover, that a preface from him would damn the book in the eyes of readers in England and America for whom he is still a pariah and by whom his present method of writing is considered “una vera senilità”. As for the title he agrees with you that Senility is impossible. He suggests As a Man Grows Older or Goodby, Deo Gratias».
Determined to persuade Joyce to write or sign a preface to the English edition of As A man Grows Old, Livia Veneziani Schmitz even gets Lucia involved in her mission.
> coll. Museo Svevo – Epistolario
