Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake

Los Angeles: Expanding Cinema, 1966. Shooting final for the 1966 film. Copy belonging to actor Peter Haskell, with his manuscript annotations throughout and his shooting schedule laid in.

Mary Ellen Bute's final film, and one of the only cinematic adaptations of James Joyce's masterfully complex work of fiction, "Finnegans Wake." Shot over a two year period, Bute was tasked with transforming Joyce's impenetrable prose without losing any of the work's surreal, lyrical essence. The subsequent film maintains the original novel's oneiric style. Bute and her husband, Ted Nemeth, were longtime collaborators, and Nemeth worked as both cinematographer and producer of the film. In 1965, it was honored at the Cannes Film Festival as Best Debut and remains Bute's sole feature length film.

Shot on location in New York City and Dublin.

Brown untitled wrappers. Title page present, dated March 4, 1963 and December 3, 1962, noted as Shooting Final, with credits for screenwriters Mary Ellen Bute, Romana Javitz, and T. J. Nemeth Jr and editor A.I.M.S. Street. 148 leaves, with last page of text numbered 139. Mimeograph duplication, with onionskin revision pages throughout. Pages Very Good plus, wrapper Very Good plus. Some pages detaching and wrapper slightly cracked. Bound internally with prong binding.

[Book #140604]