Last year at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, one of the exhibiting dealers offered a copy of the Limited Editions Club (LEC) Ulysses, illustrated by Henri Matisse and signed by both the artist and the author, James Joyce. The price was $23,500. While Matisse signed the entire 1,500-copy edition, the dealer went on to explain why Joyce’s signature is found in only 250 of them.

Joyce was initially pleased that an artist of Matisse’s stature was to illustrate Ulysses. But after some consideration, Joyce was worried that the Frenchman might not be familiar enough with the Irish terrain to do the job. He attempted to have a friend in Ireland send the artist an illustrated weekly from Dublin around 1904. When [Joyce] discovered that Matisse had not even read the book, but instead depicted six episodes from Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce flew into a rage and refused to sign any more copies.

In 2002, an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow gave a slightly different version of the story. He explained that Matisse had misunderstood the assignment and made his etchings “under the mistaken impression that he was to illustrate Homer’s ancient Greek epic, [the] Odyssey (also known by its Latin name Ulysses).” According to the appraiser, both artists signed only 250 copies of the Limited Editions Club Ulysses because “Joyce and Matisse entertained a mutual dislike of one another’s work.”