"Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." -- the memorable closing sentence from author and poet James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," spoken by Joyce's fictional alter ego protagonist Stephen Dedalus as he embarks on the life of an artist. The sentiment expressed captures the emotion that artists feel when they choose a life dedicated to their art: life affirming, exhilaration, hope.
"Portrait" was followed by the brilliant, norm-breaking "Ulysses" (published on this day in 1922) and the difficult to comprehend "Finnegans Wake." Joyce, who shares his birthday with "Ulysses," was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, creating a style all his own and leading the modernist movement in literature.
