Editor's Note: The below story first appeared in The Irish Times on April 7, 1903. The byline simply reads “A Correspondent,” but this wasn’t on

Read James Joyce’s Only Piece of Car Writing: ‘The Motor Derby’ from 1903

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2022-07-06 19:00:07

Editor's Note: The below story first appeared in The Irish Times on April 7, 1903. The byline simply reads “A Correspondent,” but this wasn’t one of the Times’ random pens; this was written by none other than James Joyce, author of Ulysses and one of the most famous and influential writers of the 20th century.

But just like the best of us, it seems like even Joyce wasn't above blogging about cars for money from time to time. Irish journalist David Mullen recently unearthed a story titled The Motor Derby that Joyce wrote over a century ago ahead of Ireland’s 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup race, interviewing the French automaker Mors’ factory driver Henri Fournier. Although the interview is known by Joyce scholars and auto racing historians as a piece of interesting ephemera, it has never attracted wide attention. This is, we suspect, the first time it has appeared online in full. Mullen has also written a companion piece explaining the historical context of Joyce's story, the Gordon Bennett cup, and turn-of-the-century racing that you can read here.

PARIS. In the Rue d’Anjou, not far from the Church of the Madeleine is M. Henri Fournier’s place of business. “Paris Automobile”—a company of which M. Fournier is the manager—has its headquarters there. Inside the gateway is a big square court, roofed over, and on the floor of the court and on great shelves extending from the floor to the roof are arranged motorcars of all sizes, shapes and colors. In the afternoon, this court is full of noises, the voices of workmen, the voices of buyers speaking in half-a-dozen languages, the ringing of telephone bells, the horns sounded by the “chauffeurs” as the cars go in and out—and it is almost impossible to see M. Fournier unless one is prepared to wait two or three hours for one’s turn. But the buyers of “autos” are, in one sense, people of leisure. The morning, however, is more favorable, and yesterday morning, after two failures, I succeed in seeing M. Fournier.