Talk:United States v. One Book Called Ulysses

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Archive 1

Format

This article does not have an infobox at the upper right. That choice was deliberate. Ordinarily such a table would contain information on the Court of Appeals decision. But here, the more well-known decision was that of the lower court. Given the significance of Judge Woolsey's decision in in the literary world and the world at large, it did not seem right to shoehorn this article into an arbitrary format. And the text contains information on both court decisions, with cites, court composition, and holdings. Kablammo (talk) 16:09, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Name

This case is usually known by its trial court caption, United States v. One Book Called Ulysses. The caption of the case in the court of appeals was United States v. One Book Entitled Ulysses by James Joyce. It is clear that the trial court name is far more common than the name in the court of appeals. The latter has 578 Google hits, while the former has 8,560.

This article uses, as it should, the common name of the case.

Kablammo (talk) 19:58, 9 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reliability of Bennett Cerf's account

Bennett Cerf wrote an account of the book's seizure on arrival at New York, and that account has been quoted and relied on extensively elsewhere. Cerf explained the reluctance of the customs agent to seize the book because the day was very hot, and the customs agents were more interested in going home than seizing the book, as "everybody brings that in".

Cerf also wrote that the book arrived in 1933 on the Aquitania. At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf (1997), pp. 92-93. Aquitania was a Cunard ship which would have docked in Manhattan. The New York Times, in reliance on Cerf's memoir, also states this was on May 8, 1933:

The book was sent from Paris to Random House, arriving on May 8, 1933, on the ocean liner Aquitania. According to Cerf's memoirs, Random House's strategy nearly failed at the pier, when customs agents, anxious to go home for the day, refused to seize the book. Oh, for God's sake, everybody brings that in, an exasperated customs inspector declared. We don't pay any attention to it. Only at the insistence of the publisher's agent was the book confiscated."Judge's 'Uysses' ruling still a landmark 50 years later", New York Times, National Edition (December 6, 1983).

Cerf's version is contradicted by other sources which state that the book arrived on the Bremen, a Norddeutscher Lloyd ship that arrived on May 3, 1932 at the Port of New York (the NDL docks were actually in Hoboken, New Jersey). Temperatures that day in in Central Park ranged from 42 F to 69 F.

Yet another source gives May 8, 1932. Aitken, Law Makers, Law Breakers, and Uncommon Trials, pp. 340-41. Temperature that day was 49 to 56 F. Given the timing of the case which began later that year, 1932 undoubtedly is correct; see "75 Years Since First Authorised American Ulysses !", which however transposes 1932 to 1923 in the first mention of the year.

Contemporaneous cables and correspondence, including from Cerf himself, confirm that the book arrived aboard Bremen in May 1932. Relevant documents are transcribed in the Moscato and LeBlanc volume listed under "Secondary sources" in the "Bibliography" section of this article's page. Some excerpts from 1932:

April 27 1932: Paul Léon writes to Cerf, stating that the book will be mailed for transit aboard Bremen the following day. (Léon was secretary to James Joyce. We do not have an article on him, but the the German Wikipedia does. See Paul Léon.)
May 1: Léon cables Cerf that the book was sent First Class registered mail on Bremen on April 28, expected arrival May 3.
May 2: Cerf called to tell Random House's attorneys that he had received the cable. Attorneys both telephoned and wrote to the Collector of Customs to advise that the book would arrive aboard Bremen the next day, and requested its examination in light of prior decisions and case law.
May 3: The liner arrives at the port of New York.
May 6: Random's attorneys wrote to Customs to ask whether the book had been seized. The Deputy Collector responded the same day, and said the matter would receive immediate attention.
May 7: Random's attorneys wrote Cerf to tell him that the book had been seized, and the Solicitor for the Collector of Customs spoke with Random's attorney, who wrote Cerf that "on the basis on this conversation we believe there is scant likelihood of the Customs Bureau reversing itself with respect to the ban previously imposed on Joyce's book."

Nowhere is there any indication that the book was seen by Customs at the pier when the ship docked.

Other sources support the 1932 date:

May 3: Bremen arrives at the Port of New York. "International Oil Conference to Be Held in New York Next Week - Delegates from Russia to Participate", Financial Chronicle, May 7, 1932, Vol. 134, No. 3489, p. 3358; "Russians come here for wide oil parley", New York Times, May 3, 1932, Financial section, p. 29 "Representatives of the Soviet oil industry will arrive on the Bremen today ...".
May 8: According to the libel action, the actual seizure took place.
July 18: Cerf wrote to Léon, confirming that the book had been seized by Customs.
December 9: The US attorney commences the libel action.
December 16: Random House contests the libel, and makes claim to the book.

So Cerf is mistaken on the arrival year (in his memoirs), the vessel on which the book was shipped, the date of its arrival at New York, and the weather then. Given Cerf's unreliability as a historian, we should not rely on his account. Kablammo (talk) 02:02, 1 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Play

An recent article in The Guardian reported on development of a play based on this case. Rory Carroll, "Ireland marks Bloomsday with play about Ulysses obscenity trial", The Guardian, 16 June 2022. The subhead is "1933 trial that vindicated ‘pornographic’ James Joyce novel made into play to be staged in Dublin". Its author also has tweeted about its development [1], and RTÉ broadcast a reading of the work. "The United States versus Ulysses" (Drama on One program). I have not added this to the article as it is new and I am unsure if is sufficiently important to include. Kablammo (talk) 04:47, 19 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]