Joyce’s Grandson Cuts Museum Out of Will in Dispute

The grandson of author James Joyce today cut the Joyce Museum in Dublin out of his will after disputes over the novelist’s death mask and the selling of Joyce souvenirs such as Bloomsday soap and ties.

Stephen Joyce told Irish Radio from his home in Paris that he objects to “this ludicrous commercial exploitation of my grandfather’s name and writing.”

A death mask of Joyce was the center of an embarrassing dispute last year. It was given to Irish architect Michael Scott, founder of the Joyce Museum, who sold it.

The sale was eventually rescinded and the mask handed back to the museum, but Stephen Joyce called the incident “disrespectful.”

This year the museum, housed in a wind-swept tower overlooking Dublin Bay, started to sell blue and white ties modeled on the frontispiece of “Ulysses,” Joyce’s 1922 masterpiece. It also sold Bloomsday soap, named after one of the novel’s protagonists, Leopold Bloom.