Neat post to a Joyce list I'm on, from Ed Germain.
About 1983, I asked Marie Jolas about James Joyce's relationship to women. As well as I can recall verbatim, this is what she said:
"He was always polite to women, always. He was always a gentleman, always courteous, gracious to women... And he would ask questions of women that no one else would, no other man would."
What kind of questions, I asked her.
"What is it like to give birth? What is it like to menstruate? Many questions like that."
And women answered? I asked.
"Yes. We all told him. He was so interested and courteous. He listened."
Marie Jolas and her husband Eugene knew Joyce quite well. Eugene published "Work in Progress" in his magazine, transition.
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