James Joyce was born in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin, on February 2, 1882. He had an upper-middle class upbringing. In 1902, he left Dublin for Paris, where he lived in an extreme state of poverty for about a year, before returning to Dublin while his mother was dying.

In 1904, he again left Dublin, this time bound for Switzerland and accompanied by Ms. Barnacle. He spent much of his time there working as an English tutor in Zurich.

Throughout most of his adult life, Joyce's condition ranged between moderate and extreme poverty, but indications are that he had a happy domestic life with his wife, his son, and his daughter.

In 1915 he settled permanently in Zurich and never returned to Ireland.

During the writing of Ulysses, Joyce's eyesight began to fail. Several of his close friends helped him to compensate for the loss of his eyesight.

Joyce died in Zurich on January 13, 1941. Much of the appreciation has come posthumously. Today there is no doubt of his genius as is reflected by his continued popularity.