JOYCE (James). Tales Told of Shem and Shaun. Three Fragments from Work in Progress. Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1929. — In-8, 210 x 165: (first and third leaves blank), 1 plate, printed cover. Paperback, cloth-bound cover, slipcase. First edition, with a preface by the British linguist Charles Kay Odgen. In 1929, Harry and Caresse Crosby, publishers of the Black Sun Press, approached Joyce—through the bookseller Sylvia Beach—to publish these three short fables excerpted from *Finnegans Wake*, featuring the novel’s three children, Shem, Shaun, and Issy. They are titled: “The Mookse and the Gripes,” “The Muddest Thick That Was Ever Heard Dump,” and “The Ondt and the Gracehoper.” Finnegans Wake would not be published in its complete version until 1939. The edition is illustrated with an abstract, out-of-text portrait of the author by Constantin BRANCUSI (1876–1957). Limited edition of 650 copies. This is one of the 500 printed on Holland Van Gelder paper (no. 228). Very well-preserved copy.