First Impressions

Impressions are formed in those first and subsequent moments when we meet, view and read each other. What happens next can sometimes change our lives. James Joyce attended a Sunday afternoon party in Paris in July 1920, given by the poet André Spire, at which Sylvia Beach introduced herself to him. She said he gave an ?impression of sensitiveness exceeding any she had ever known?. Joyce asked her what she did in Paris and when she mentioned the name of her bookstore he smiled and wrote it down in a small notebook. Little did Joyce know that when all other avenues were closed to him this was the person who would publish his novel Ulysses in 1922.

First Impressions lucidly presents the lives of twenty of the period?s most influential personalities, drawing attention to their significant achievements, showing how they interacted with one another and discussing their contribution to the artistic and literary developments which characterised the age.