United States V. One Book Called Ulysses - Background

Background

In 1922 James Joyce published Ulysses, his most famous work. Prior to publication as a book, the work was serialized in The Little Review, a Chicago-based literary magazine. This periodical published the "Nausicäa episode," which contained a masturbation scene. Copies were mailed to potential subscribers; a girl of unknown age read it and was shocked, and a complaint was made to the Manhattan District Attorney. As the magazine could be purchased in a New York bookshop and its publishers maintained an office in the city, the local district attorney was able to prosecute in New York. Little Review publishers Margaret Caroline Anderson and Jane Heap could not argue that the chapter should be considered in light of the work as a whole, as only the offending chapter was published in the issue in question. The trial court, stating that the novel seemed "like the work of a disordered mind", convicted and fined Anderson and Heap. That stopped publication of Ulysses in the United States for over a decade.

In 1933 Random House, which had the rights to publish the entire book in the United States, decided to bring a test case to challenge the implicit ban, so as to publish the work without fear of prosecution. It therefore made an arrangement to import the edition published in France, and to have a copy seized by the U.S. Customs Service when the ship carrying the work arrived. Although Customs had been told in advance of the anticipated arrival of the book, the local official declined to confiscate it, stating "everybody brings that in." He and his superior were finally convinced to seize the work. The United States Attorney then took seven months before deciding whether to proceed further. While the Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to assess the work's obscenity felt that it was a "literary masterpiece," he also found it obscene within the meaning of the law. The office therefore decided to take action against the work under the provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allowed a district attorney to bring an action for forfeiture and destruction of imported works which were obscene. This set up the test case.