Lowry turned down an opportunity to meet Joyce when he saw a poster at Shakespeare and Company bookshop claiming Joyce would be at a meeting of Les Amis de 1914 on 23rd February 1934. Lowry believed the claim on the poster to be "unfounded and prepostrous." ( Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 55).
Jan did go to the meeting; "Oddly enough, Joyce did indeed show up, but that was all he did. The famous Irish voice remained unheard. Behind his glasses could it be that he was not awake?"
François Bernouard organised Les Amis de 1914 event to celebrate James Joyce's 'Work In Progress' on 23rd February 1934 ( (Maria Jolas and J. Aubert: Joyce and Paris 1902..1920-1940..1975 Papers of the Fifth International James Joyce Symposium, Paris 16-20 June 1975) which Jan Gabrial attended.(Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 55). The event took place on the Boulevard Montparnasse in a vast temporary wooden structure next door to La Coupole and was reported by the Nouvelle Littérature as Joyce a La Coupole.
On stage were Louis Gillet, Edouard Dujardin and Léon-Paul Fargue who all spoke about James Joyce's work. The audience filled the event and included Andre Spire, Sylvia Beach, Adrienne Monnier, Ludmilla Bloch-Savitsky, John Rodker, Stuart Gilbert, Helen and Georgio Joyce, Paul Leons, Myron Nuttings, John O'Sullivan, Robert McAlmon, Samuel Beckett, George Antheil and Philippe Soupault.
There were also readings from Joyce's 'Work in Progress' including Finnegan's Wake read by an actress Rachel Behrendt coached by Joyce.
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