James Joyce (1882–1941)
Ulysses published in The Little Review: A Magazine of the Arts, vol. 5 no. 11
New York, March 1918
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
Ulysses by James Joyce
A polarizing novel, Ulysses has been labeled as both “extremely brilliant” (T.S. Eliot) and “written by a perverted lunatic” (anonymous 1922 review). James Joyce’s novel was first published in the United States in 1918, in twenty-three issues of The Little Review (March 1914 – December 1922). A literary magazine published in New York City by Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, The Little Review was no stranger to censorship. Anderson and Heap had found themselves in legal trouble just a year earlier, in 1917, for publishing Wyndham Lewis’s story Cattleman’s Spring-Mate.
Following the publication of the “Nausicaa” episode of Ulysses, in the April 1920 issue, Anderson and Heap were arrested and charged with obscenity. John Quinn, a lawyer and art collector who knew Joyce personally and admired his work, represented the publishers at their subsequent trial. A panel of three judges deemed the text to be obscene, resulting in a fine of $100 and an order to discontinue publication of the novel.
Ulysses was published in France on Joyce’s 40th birthday, February 2, 1922, and was finally published in the United States in 1934 by Random House.
: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
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