JAMES JOYCE, (1882-1941) Irish novelist and poet is one of the most famous and controversial writers of the 20th century. Ulysses, his Homer-inspired masterwork, was banned, criticized, and censored on moral grounds, with its detractors calling it obscene and incomprehensible, obviously the work of a madman.

Today it is considered one of the supreme modernist masterpieces of the 20th century.

He was the author of the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939). His collections of poetry include Chamber Music (1907) and Pomes Penyeach (1927).