Why was Ulysses banned in America?
Ulysses was banned in the United States as obscene after episodes appeared in The Little Review. In the 1933 case United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, Judge John Woolsey ruled it was not obscene, and Random House published it legally in 1934.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Judge John M. Woolsey's ruling, 6 December 1933.
whilst in many places the effect of Ulysses on the reader undoubtedly is somewhat emetic, nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac.
What it means in plain English
Random House arranged for a copy to be seized so the case could be tested. Woolsey read the book and asked whether it would excite a person “with average sex instincts”.
The ruling was upheld on appeal in 1934.
Literary context
Earlier, in 1921, The Little Review's editors were convicted over the Nausicaa episode.
References
- United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, 5 F. Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y. 1933)
- Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (revised edition, 1982)
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Questions readers ask
When was Ulysses published in the US?
Legally, in January 1934, by Random House.
Related terms
Gerty MacDowell
Gerty MacDowell is the young woman Bloom watches on Sandymount Strand at sunset in Episode 13. The first half of the episode is told in the gushing style of the romantic magazines she reads. She leans back to show her legs; Bloom masturbates; then she limps away.
The 1922 first edition
Ulysses was first published in Paris on 2 February 1922, Joyce's fortieth birthday, by Sylvia Beach's bookshop Shakespeare and Company. It was printed in Dijon in an edition of 1,000 copies, in a blue cover chosen to match the Greek flag.
Shakespeare and Company
Shakespeare and Company was Sylvia Beach's English-language bookshop and lending library in Paris, at 12 rue de l'Odéon from 1921. It published Ulysses in 1922 and was a home for writers such as Hemingway. A later shop of the same name, opened in 1951, still trades by the Seine.