Literary life after death
By Rachel Keeler
Published: March 26 2009 12:59 Last updated: March 26 2009 12:59
For lovers and scholars of the 20th-century novel, Stephen Joyce has become something of a literary villain. The grandson and sole living heir of James Joyce, the Irish author and poet, has spent the past 17 years fiercely guarding his family’s estate through a series of court battles with those brave enough to try to use copyrighted Joyce documents.
In 1988, he took offense at the epilogue to Brenda Maddox’s “Nora,” a biography of Joyce’s wife, which described the decades that Joyce’s schizophrenic daughter, Lucia, spent in a mental asylum. Although the book had already been printed in galleys, Maddox, fearing a legal battle, offered to delete the section; the agreement she signed with Stephen also enjoined her descendants from publishing the material. Shortly afterward, at a Bloomsday symposium in Venice, Stephen announced that he had destroyed all the letters that his aunt Lucia had written to him and his wife. He added that he had done the same with postcards and a telegram sent to Lucia by Samuel Beckett, with whom she had pursued a relationship in the late nineteen-twenties.
“I have not destroyed any papers or letters in my grandfather’s hand, yet,” Stephen wrote at the time. But in the early nineties he persuaded the National Library of Ireland to give him some Joyce family correspondence that was scheduled to be unsealed. Scholars worry that these documents, too, have been destroyed. He has blocked or discouraged countless public readings of “Ulysses,” and once tried unsuccessfully to halt a Web audiocast of the book. In 1997, he sued the Irish scholar Danis Rose, who was trying to publish a newly edited version of “Ulysses,” calling it “one of the literary hoaxes of the century.” (Around the same time, Stephen expressed his intention to obstruct a proposed new edition by the American scholar John Kidd; he told the chairman of Kidd’s publisher, W. W. Norton, that he was “implacably opposed” to the project, which was never completed.) According to Hans E. Jahnke, Stephen’s stepbrother, who once had a stake in the Joyce estate, the suit against Rose, which lasted five years, cost the estate roughly a hundred thousand dollars. The estate won the case. In 2004, the centenary of Bloomsday, Stephen threatened the Irish government with a lawsuit if it staged any Bloomsday readings; the readings were cancelled. He warned the National Library of Ireland that a planned display of his grandfather’s manuscripts violated his copyright. (The Irish Senate passed an emergency amendment to thwart him.) His antagonism led the Abbey Theatre to cancel a production of Joyce’s play “Exiles,” and he told Adam Harvey, a performance artist who had simply memorized a portion of “Finnegans Wake” in expectation of reciting it onstage, that he had likely “already infringed” on the estate’s copyright. Harvey later discovered that, under British law, Joyce did not have the right to stop his performance. Stephen has also attempted to impede the publication of dozens of scholarly works on James Joyce. He rejects nearly every request to quote from unpublished letters. Last year, he told a prominent Joyce scholar that he was no longer granting permissions to quote from any of Joyce’s writings. (The scholar, fearing retribution, declined to be named in this article.) Stephen’s primary motive has been to put a halt to work that, in his view, either violates his family’s privacy or exceeds the bounds of reputable scholarship. The two-decade-long effort has also been an exercise in power—an attempt to establish his own centrality in regard to anything involving his grandfather. If you want to write about James Joyce and plan to quote more than a few short passages, you need Stephen’s consent. He has said, “We have proven that we are willing to take any necessary action to back and enforce what we legitimately believe in.” Or, as he put it to me during two phone calls that he recently made to me from La Flotte, “What other literary estate stands up the way I do? It’s a whole way of looking at things and looking at life.”
Stephen’s notoriously acerbic dealings are held up by many who question the role of intellectual property law in literary estate management.
For many it's not about money, but about legacy.
Felicity Dahl look after the estate of her late husband, author Roald Dahl.
has established a children’s museum and charitable foundation, presided over several fantastical movie adaptations, set up an award-winning website and is now promoting the new Roald Dahl Funny Prize, awarded in November in London to authors Ursula Jones and Andy Stanton.
While the extended Dahl family shares ownership of the estate and its copyright royalties – 10 per cent of which helps fund the museum and foundation – Dahl explicitly left control of his legacy to Felicity. She now oversees an ebullient team of literary agents, trustees and executors who direct exactly how Dahl’s copyrighted stories, archives and trademarked brand name may be used.
There are big variations in how way estates are handled by heirs. JRR Tolkien sold the film rights to his books in 1969. His family is now embroiled in a lawsuit against New Line Cinema over royalties from the recent Lord of the Rings films. Some authors donate full rights to charities while others leave few instructions to heirs who let the writing slip into obscurity.
But for people such as Felicity Dahl, who see decades of potential wrapped up in art left behind, the proper care and development of a loved one’s intellectual property is everything.
Maintaining artistic integrity in posthumous projects takes a tremendous amount of acumen and finesse on the part of an heir. Getting it right also requires the ability to exploit disjointed levels of international copyright and trademark laws.
Roald Dahl’s archives are open to the public at the Roald Dahl Museum in Buckinghamshire, just outside London.
NY Times brief reports the 400-piece Jolika collection of New Guinea Art at the de Young Museum in San Francisco will be broken up to resolve the debt arising from the donor family's inheritance dispute. This is a story we've followed here and here. Seven pieces will be sold at auction in Paris on June 17th by Sotheby's and the City of San Francisco will allow an addition 76 works to be sold.
The trustees for Leona Helmsley's estate said Tuesday they have started spreading her estimated $5 billion fortune by awarding $136 million in grants to charitable causes; a mere $1million is going to the dogs.
New development in an inheritance dispute we commented on here. The of the dispute is the Papua New Guinea art that de Young Trustee John Friede, promised his prized collection to the de Young Memorial Museum but at the same time put it up as collateral in a legal settlement over his mother's estate with his two brothers.
John Friede's two brothers contend they have the right to seize the collection and sell up to $20 million worth of its art after a Florida judge ruled that Friede had violated the terms of a legal settlement involving their mother's estate.
Also in addition to the family the feud, the Museum itself is fighting Thomas Jaffe, John's half brother, accusing him of "malice and a desire to destroy the relationship between the Friedes and the museum" City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a court challenges accusing Thomas of trying to block a $3.7 million dollar payment which was promised by the Friede family for promotion and study of the art collection.
The link between savant syndrome and autism is well established. This economists.com article called "Genius locus," points to a recent study that reinforces this conclusion. It says that as many as 30% of autistic people have some kind of savant type capability in areas like math or music. Autism symptoms like poor communication skills, and obsession with detail are also exhibited by creative types in science, engineering, music, and the arts.
Most viewed video of all time. That girl's going to need some estate planning.
Boyle’s brother said she would listen to Osmond’s records over and over again, and practice singing. She had Osmond posters all over her walls, and she would lock herself in her room and sing his songs as loud as possible. She'd stand in front the mirror and sing until she achieved perfection.
Michael Crichton, who was married five times, didn't provide for any of his ex-wives when he died last year. He provided for his daughter through a trust and he provided for his widow, Sherri, through a prenuptial agreement that limits her share of the estate. The author even stated in his will that he wanted the prenuptial agreement to be honored. 
If you're a collector who's going to die someday, you might want to read this at Huffpo.
This building in Salt Lake City, Utah was build 118 years ago and housed the Internation Order of Odd Fellows. It weighs 5 million pounds. The feds want the space for a court. In order to save the building they have lifted it up on rollers and are going to move it out, turn it around, and set it down on the other side of the street.
The ultimate family feud stars two families of completely different background and has been going on for thousands of years between the Palestinian and Israeli sides of the family. 
From the Ottawa Business Journal
Reef Rest?
Last week, two 16th century paintings that hung in William Randolph Heart's castle were confiscated by the Nazis in 1935. Last week Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman handed them over on the second day of Passover.
Utah planners say they have not seen the energy savings they expected when a four-day, 10-hour-a-day schedule was ordered for state employees, but there has been another benefit: an uptick in productivity and worker satisfaction. Though some don't like the longer days, seventy percent of Utah state employees prefer the shorter work week. Not only that but, good for their employer, they are taking less leave and working less overtime.
Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that Chris Devine of Devine Racing, which owns and operates the Salt Lake Marathon has been accused of financing his marathon empire with money he stole from an isolated multimillionaire C. Robert Allen to the tune of $70 million dollars. Allen's family has charged in a lawsuit Devine and business partner Bruce Buzil of racketeering, fraud, and embezzlement. They describe the Allen as a mentally and physically frail man who was taken advantage of.
From the Roanoke Times A Roanoke pastor stole more that $60,000 from relatives and used the money, in part for computers and a sound system for his church. The relatives were two elderly sisters. 
From Newsweek
Sen. Jeff Bingaman D-NM has introduced a bill that would phase out the 24-month waiting period (sometimes called the "death period") for Medicare Disability over the next ten years. Under current policy, with limited exceptions, someone who qualifies for Medicare Disability must wait two years before receiving benefits. Senator Bingaman cites an April 2007 Commonwealth Fund report in his announcement that says over 1.5 million disabled beneficiaries are waiting for benefits at any given time. Most have serious health problems, low incomes, and limited access to health insurance. 
Wall Street Journal has a story about a 97-year-old man who had an estate plan, but it assumed that his much-younger wife would outlive him. Oops, when she died, all of the couples assets went to the woman's children (from a first marriage), leaving him with no money.
Senate vote on the estate tax showed support is lacking forincreasing the exemption and lowering the tax rate.
The national group Funeral Consumers Alliance says a bill now being debated in the Colorado General Assembly is really a move by industry groups to protect their profits, but at a cost to consumers.
An Alton area funeral director who was charged last month with robbing two banks in southern Indiana is now charged with two bank robberies in Cape Girardeau, Mo., as well. Authorities said the man was so desperate over financial problems that he turned to robbing banks. He marketed his services as an alternative to traditional homes, arranging services at churches and private chapels at less cost, but the business was failing.
Miami Herald has another take on the way the recession is hurting funeral homes. Funerals typically cost $7,000 - $8,000 and more and more, customers are cutting back and looking for alternatives. So the funeral directors are cutting budgets, but cutting electricity for refrigeration? Not a good idea. 
It's not surprising that there has been a big uptick in interest in alternatives to what has become known as the traditional funeral. Increasingly people are cutting costs by choosing cremation, home funerals, green burials, and other alternatives.
Senator Orrin Hatch R-UT and Blanche Lincoln D-AR have reintroduced a bill that would order the federal government to collect data on elder abuse. It introduces penalties for failure to report abuse and crime in long-term care facilities and provides Adult Protective, among other things. Hatch says that governments spends just $153 million on elder abuse compared $5.7 billion a year on child abuse. It is too small, especially now when 76 million people will be reaching retirement age in the next three decades. 
Sealing Guardianship court proceedings? That's scary business. Guardianship can completely strip all individual rights from a person. It is completely discomforting that the proceeding could be done, in whole or part, away from the view of the press and public. 
Patients who never talked about their end-of-life wishes were more likely to be resuscitated, intubated or put in intensive care — or all of the above. Patients who had had those conversations generally opted for comfort, or palliative, care at home or in a hospice at much lower cost. Aggressive, expensive care was found to inflict more suffering, but not extend life. According to this item in the NY Times called "At the End of Life, Denial Comes at a Price."
In 2000, U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real was given control over about $34 million in assets seized from Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered him to remit the trust funds to an institutional trustee for safekeeping while ownership issues were resolved. 
An accountant from Boca Raton has been arrested and charged with filing a false tax return. His is the first arrest of a major American client of UBS, which is accused of helping Americans evade taxes. UBS has admitted to conspiracy to defraud the US.
