“I can never remember where to ring,” she said. Miss Steloff was one of the original members of the James Joyce Society, and Joyce himself ordered books directly from Miss Steloff, according to, the society’s Web site.Īs the group made its way through its textual critique, there was much crunching of potato chips and trail mix, and a prominent refrain during the discussion was, “Pass the wine!” Interpretations ranged far and wide, to subjects as varied as baseball, the death tarot card, the Gap and Allah.īefore the meeting started, Marilyn Apelson, a gray-haired teacher from Manhattan, who has been with the group since the beginning, was searching the row of rusted buzzers at 178 Spring Street. It was opened in 1920 by Frances Steloff, who challenged federal obscenity laws by insisting on selling Joyce’s earlier novel, “Ulysses,” when it was published in 1922. The group’s gatherings are reminiscent of 1920s culture, when literary interests evolved from the apartment salon to specialty bookstores, like the Gotham. Gross, 71, a retired lawyer known for his eye-rolling interpretations of sexual allusions. The store has closed its doors for financial reasons, however, and so the group now convenes in the SoHo apartment of its leader, Murray J. Until three months ago the Wake Watchers, as the members call themselves, used to meet at the Gotham Book Mart in Midtown. James Joyce’s novel could be the most difficult in English, with puns in 40 languages, including Esperanto and Volapük.

ON Thanksgiving eve, after 15 years of monthly meetings to read and discuss a page or so of “Finnegans Wake,” the Finnegans Wake Society of New York was only on Pages 303-5, with 324 to go.

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