Classic Novel “Ulysses” Ruled Not Pornographic!
In one of the most important censorship cases of the 1930s, United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, District Court Judge John M. Woolsey declared James Joyce’s celebrated novel Ulysses to be not pornographic.
The Ulysses case was handled by attorney Morris L. Ernst, who was then emerging as the most effective anti-censorship litigator in the country. Ernst also wrote numerous books for the general public challenging censorship. He was also co-General Counsel of the ACLU with Arthur Garfield Hays.
Ulysses is generally considered the greatest novel in the English language. Judge Woolsey’s decision was upheld by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on August 7, 1934.
The decision in the Ulysses case was one of a series of lower court decisions in the late 1920s and 1930s that chipped away at the long-established censorship of literary works because of their sexual content. See for example the court decision on April 19, 1929 holding that The Well of Loneliness, a lesbian themed novel was not obscene.
Judge Woolsey: “Whether a particular book would tend to excite such impulses and thoughts must be tested by the Court’s opinion as to its effect on a person with average sex instincts — what the French would call “l’homme moyen sensuel” — who plays, in this branch of legal inquiry, the same role of hypothetical reagent as does the “reasonable man” in the law of torts and “the man learned in the art” on questions of invention in patent law.”
Read Judge Woolsey’s complete opinion: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5544515174778878625&q=
Read the full story of the legal problems of Ulysses: Kevin Birmingham, The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses (2014)
Read the classic novel: James Joyce, Ulysses (Find an edition that contains Judge Woolsey’s opinion)
Learn more at the James Joyce Centre: http://jamesjoyce.ie/
Learn more about the trials of Ulysses: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ulysses/Ulysseslinks.html