The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses (78 page)

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:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After 10 Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 284.
for weeks
and
suited his taste:
Annual Report of the House Committee
,
1932–3,
qtd. in
Publication of the New York Bar Association
40, no. 5 (Oct. 1985), p. 535.
was also Woolsey’s chauffeur
:
John Woolsey, Jr. “Assorted Notes,” n.d., unpublished.
gold ring
:
Davis, “Ulysses,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 342.
“The government can’t”
and
Maggie
and
etymology:
Ernst, “The Censor Marches On,”
Best Is Yet
, qtd. in
UvU
, p. 22.
“Suppose that a girl”
and
“I don’t think that”:
“Court Undecided on ‘Ulysses’ Ban,”
NYT
, Nov. 26, 1933, p. 16.
Note:
The trial accounts (from Ernst,
NYT
,
Daily Boston Globe
and
New York Herald-Tribune
) vary slightly from one another, and the sequence of events is difficult to determine. I have combined accounts and coordinated the sequence of statements for narrative purposes.
“the present critical point”
:
U.S
.
v
.
Kennerley
, 209 Fed. 119 (1913), qtd. in Defense brief,
UvU
, p. 244.
so-called sunsuits
:
Defense Brief,
UvU
, p. 246.
modern classic
and
“of acknowledged excellence”:
Ibid., pp. 255–6.
“Mr. Coleman”
and
“I should say”:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, pp. 286–7. See also “Ruling on ‘Obscene’ Holds Fate of Book,”
Daily Boston Globe
, Nov. 26, 1933, p. A4.
“new and startling”
:
Government Brief, qtd. in
UvU
, p. 295.
“almost perfect”
and
“majestic genius”:
UvU
, p. 240. The quotations are from Paul Rosenfeld and Rebecca West.
“superb”
and
“classically exquisite”:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” ibid., reprinted in
UvU
, p. 286.
“THE FEDERAL”
:
Defense brief,
UvU
, p. 255.
“No one would dare attack”
:
“Court Undecided on ‘Ulysses” Ban,”
NYT
, Nov. 26, 1933, p. 16.
“An occasional word”
:
Government brief,
UvU
, pp. 300–3.
Clement Wood’s
Flesh
:
Ibid., pp. 253, 304.
“endless blasphemy”
:
Ibid., p. 299.
“Ill tighten my bottom well”
:
Ulysses
, p. 642 (18: 1530–2).
“I do not think”
:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” ibid., reprinted in
UvU
, pp. 286–7.
disgusting
:
See
U.S.
v.
Married Love
48 F. (2d) 821 (1931).
skillfully integrated
:
“Court Undecided on ‘Ulysses’ Ban,”
NYT
, Nov. 26, 1933, p. 16; “Ruling on ‘Obscene’ Holds Fate of Book,”
Daily Boston Globe
, Nov. 26, 1933, p. A4.
dragging its feet
:
Lindey to Ernst, Nov. 6, 1933,
UvU
, p. 279.
contact Woolsey personally
:
Ernst to Woolsey, Nov. 14, 1933,
UvU
, p. 280.
“Judge, as to”
and
didn’t win him many friends:
Ernst, “Censor Marches On,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 22.
“This, your honor”
:
Ernst and Schwartz, “Four-Letter Words,” Dec. 13, 1933, reprinted in
UvU
, p. 34.
“For example, Mr. Ernst?”
and
“Oh—”:
Ernst, “Censor Marches On,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 22.
“Counselor, that isn’t”
:
Ernst and Schwartz, “Four-Letter Words,” Dec. 13, 1933, reprinted in
UvU
, p. 34.
nearly an hour
:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 284.
“led a monastic”
and
“an austere”:
Defense Brief,
UvU
, p. 239.
painstakingly structured
and
listed dozens
and
“It is axiomatic”:
Ibid., pp. 257–260.
Random House wasn’t
:
UvU
, p. 242.
“ineluctable modality”
:
Ulysses
, p. 31 (3: 1–4), qtd. in Defense Brief,
UvU
, p. 260.
“Some of it was”
:
“Ruling on ‘Obscene’ Holds Fate of Book,”
Daily Boston Globe
, Nov. 26, 1933, A4.
“This isn’t an easy case”
and
lit a cigarette:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 285.
ivory holder
:
Davis, “Ulysses,” reprinted
UvU
, p. 342.
“Still”
and
He broke off
and
“Still, there is that”:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 285.
Ill let him know
:
Ulysses
, p. 641.
“Did you really”
and
Ernst had tried:
Ernst and Schwartz, “Four-Letter Words,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 34.
“Your honor, while arguing”
and
“I’ve been worried”:
Ernst, “Censor Marches On,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 23. I’ve changed “back of your bench” to “behind your bench.”
“That, Judge”
:
Ernst, “Reflections on the
Ulysses
Trial and Censorship,” qtd.
UvU
, p. 49; “Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in,
UvU
, p. 285.
“a weird epitome”
:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 286.
hornrimmed glasses
:
Ulysses
, p. 594 (17.1878).
pickers’ shacks
and
suicide:
John Woolsey, Jr., “Family History: The Woolseys,” n.d., unpublished.
from a window
:
Interview with John Woolsey III, June 15, 2010.
“bothered, stirred”
:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 286.
“O that awful deepdown torrent”
:
Ulysses
, pp. 643–4 (18: 1597–609).
“There are passages”
:
“Ulysses Case Reaches Court After Ten Years,” reprinted in
UvU
, p. 286. See also Woolsey qtd. in “Talk of the Town,”
New Yorker
, Jan. 8, 1944.
customary Saturday lunch
:
John Woolsey, Jr., “Judge John M. Woolsey,”
JJQ
37, no. 3/4 (Spring/Summer 2000), p. 368.
Literature Committee
:
Century Association,
The Century Association Yearbook
(New York: Century Association, 1933), p. 99.
Canby
and
Merrill, Jr.:
Lindey to Ernst, Dec. 7, 1933,
UvU
, p. 317.
a publisher
:
John Woolsey, Jr., “Assorted Notes” n.d., unpublished.
“puritanic censorship”
:
Henry Canby, “Crazy Literature,”
Definitions: Essays in Contemporary Criticism
(New York York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1924), p. 111.
“obsession with”
:
Henry Canby, “Sex in Fiction,” in
Definitions
, p. 87.
“somewhat tragic”
and
“powerful commentary”:
United States
v.
One Book Called “Ulysses
,” 5 F.Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y 1933).
vanity
:
Interview with Peggy Brooks, Nov. 11, 2009. Brooks may be the last surviving person to have known the judge personally.
longhand and revised
:
Woolsey, Jr., “Judge John M. Woolsey,” p. 368.
didn’t get along
:
See Gerald Gunther,
Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 289. Hand later said Woolsey was “a bit of a show-off” but said he later “came to like [Woolsey].”
chimed on the hour
and
rugs and upholstery:
Alexander, “Federal Judge,” p. 4; Woolsey family photographs; John Woolsey, Jr., “My Early Life (1916–1930),” n.d., unpublished.
a dreary Thanksgiving
and
“I fear, Sir”:
Alexander, “Federal Judge,” pp. 15–16.
an eighteenth-century poem
:
Woolsey to Ernst, April 4, 1935, Ernst Papers, Box 36.3.
dripping razor
:
“Talk of the Town,”
New Yorker
, Jan. 8, 1944. Note: The connection between the two Thanksgivings and their bearing on the passage in the decision cited here is my speculation.
“
Joyce has attempted”
and
“has been loyal”:
United States
v.
One Book Called “Ulysses
,” 5 F.Supp. 182 (S.D.N.Y 1933).
a half-blind artist
:
UvU
, p. 239.
“historic for its authority”
:
“The Press: A Welcome to Ulysses,”
Time,
Dec. 18, 1933.
“Watchers of the U.S. skies”
:
“Books:
Ulysses

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