(the most common term appears to be "the Nora Letters", although this is very vague). Names: "Joyce-Barnacle love letters", "Joyce's erotic letters",

James Joyce (1882–1941) was an Irish poet and novelist. Born and raised in Dublin, he first began writing while attending Belvedere College, a Jesuit secondary school. During his teenage years, he came to strongly reject his Catholic upbringing in favor of an individualistic worldview which prioritized the pursuit of pleasure. He first became sexually active in 1896 with a prostitute in Dublin; he went on to frequent brothels throughout both his secondary education and his study at the University of Dublin. After graduating from Dublin in 1902, Joyce briefly stayed in Paris, before returning to Dublin to care for his terminally ill mother. After her death in 1903, Joyce became increasingly aimless, turning to alcoholism, and intermittently pursuing work as a writer while distancing himself from his family.^[1][2]

Nora Barnacle (1884–1951) was born in Galway, and spent much of her childhood under the care of her grandmother. She attended a Catholic school operated by the Sisters of Mercy in her youth, afterwards finding work as a porter at a local convent. Around the beginning of 1904, she moved to Dublin to escape abuse and found work as a hotel chambermaid. In June of that year, Barnacle and Joyce arranged a meeting after a chance encounter. They went to Ringsend, a deserted area near the harbour, where Barnacle reached into Joyce's pants and masturbated him. The two quickly fell into a romantic relationship. Four months later, with Joyce strongly critical of marriage as an institution, the two left Ireland in hopes of living together unmarried.^[3][4][5] In early 1905, the couple settled in Trieste, then under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After they had a son in 1905 and a daughter in 1907, Joyce was increasingly pressured by financial concerns, and frequently traveled in various attempts to secure money for his family.^[6]

Joyce and Barnacle's letters in 1909 reached a more hostile and abrasive tone. Barnacle chastised his frequent consumption of alcohol and lack of income, especially taking issue with his inability to write profitable books; she did not enjoy or understand his literature, although took a liking to his poems. Joyce felt he had a duty to educate his wife, and failing this, help her understand him. Barnacle was receptive to Joyce's frequent portrayal of himself as impulsive and childish, with Joyce suggesting in the letters that he needed her as a strong, controlling presence in his life.^[7] In June 1909, Joyce visited Dublin alongside his young son Giorgio to visit his family. While there, an acquaintance falsely confided that Barnacle had also been romantically involved with him after she first began seeing Joyce. Convinced and betrayed, Joyce wrote several letters to Barnacle accusing her of infidelity. Afterwards, a friend convinced him that the allegations were a lie, and he wrote again to her in apology.^[8] He briefly returned home to Trieste in September, but was soon motivated to go back to Ireland the following month, seeking to organize a cinema in Dublin. This opened as the Volta Cinematograph.^[9][10][11]

The tone of Joyce's attested letters to Barnacle shift in the aftermath of his false allegations of infidelity. Initially filled with penitence and remorse, they shift towards expressions of lust and passion. He adopts a childlike attitude towards Barnacle, comparing their relationship to that of a mother and her child. In one letter, he tells Barnacle that he wishes he could "nestle in your womb like a child born of your flesh and blood" and "sleep in the warm secret gloom of your body".^[12][13][14] Joyce also expresses sadomasochistic inclinations; in his letter on September 2nd, he writes that he has an "idea madder than usual" and requests that Barnacle try flogging him.^[15][16]

Large numbers of Joyce's papers were held by his brother Stanislaus Joyce in Trieste, unknown to Joyce academics. Stanislaus had given out only a few papers, likely keeping his collection secret due to his work on a biography of his brother (portions of which were posthumously published as My Brother's Keeper). After his death, they were inherited by his widow Nelly. Joyce biographer Richard Ellmann visited their home after their death and discovered the extant of Stanislaus's collections. In aid to Nelly Joyce, who was struck with severe financial difficulties after Stanislaus's death, Ellmann arranged a sale of the papers to Cornell University; Nelly and her son were given the funds to buy a house in London, while Ellmann was able to negotiate exclusive publishing rights for the letters.^[17]

Included within the papers from Stanislaus were the erotic letters between James Joyce and Nora. Ellmann was eager to publish these within his compilations of Joyce's letters, citing the often explicit nature of Joyce's work and the potential for scandal if the letters were published out of context. The Joyce Estate was strongly opposed to this proposal, as was Ellman's publisher Faber & Faber, which feared a legal challenge for obscenity. Writing that he wished to respect the feelings of Joyce's family, Ellmann omitted two of the letters and redacted portions of eight others from his Letters of James Joyce.^[18]

In 1966, writer Hélène Cixous published portions of the erotic letters against the wishes of Ellmann and Joyce's estate. In the wake of Cixous's illicit publication, Ellman was able to secure the publication of the letters in his 1975 Selected Letters of James Joyce.^[18]