Ulysses in America

DANIEL B. DODSON
 

"" t "FEBRUARY 2, 1972, will mark the 50th anniversary of
r^ the publication of what is considered bv the majority of
Jl literate readers as the most important novel written in
English thus far in the twentieth century, James Joyce's Ulysses.
The occasion of publication lias been ably described by Richard
Ellniann in his splendid comprehensive biography of Joyce. With
an undiminished sense of symmetry and ineradicable superstition,
Joyce insisted that tlie publication take place on his fortieth birth¬
day, February 2, 1922. During the final weeks of 192 i he worked
with uncharacteristic discipline completing and revising the final
episodes of the book which were then sent off to the printer in
Dijon.

On the morning of February 2 two copies were delivered by
the conductor of the Dijon-Paris express to Miss Sylvia Beach of
Shakespeare and Company, the publishers. Miss Beach deposited
one copy in her bookstore and delivered the other, still wrapped,
to Joyce. During the celebration dinner that evening at Ferrari's
restaurant, attended by a sizeable number of the faithful, the pack¬
age remained under Joyce's chair until the end of the meal.
Fidgeting, crossing and uncrossing his legs, and refusing to eat,
Joyce finally picked up and unwrapped rhe literary bombshell of
the century.

Ten years later a delayed reverberation of the original explo¬
sion was heard in the United States: Random House, under the
vigorous direction of Bennett Cerf, decided to attempt publica¬
tion of an American edition of the book, which had been banned
in this country. This courageous venture resulted in Judge A^'ool-
sey's handing down his famous decision, permitting publication
on December 6, 1933—an event which would have incalculable
effects on the history of publishing in America.

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