The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses

Greetings!I’m not sure how many of you have come across this recent book by Kevin Birmingham, The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s a fascinating and pleasurable read. It also features the vibrant counter-culture atmosphere surrounding the Washington Square Bookshop.Here’s an excerpt from a book review that mentions the events that initiated the legendary Ulysses obscenity trial:“The New York atmosphere in 1920 was high on surveillance and terror—the police’s “Red Raids” and retaliatory anarchist bombings—when John Sumner, the head of the NYSSV, bought the September issue of The Little Review at the Washington Square Book Shop. Two weeks later, a warrant was issued for the arrest of the bookstore’s owner on charges of selling obscene works. Those charges were soon transferred to Anderson and Heap, the magazine’s editors. The trial eventually took place in February 1921. Representing The Little Review was John Quinn—a powerful lawyer who was also a modernist patron. His central defense was that since Ulysses was “cubism in literature” its obscenity could be excused by its obscurity: since who could be corrupted by something he or she didn’t understand? The judges were unconvinced. Heap and Anderson were fined $100, the issue was banned—and Ulysses became definitively unpublishable.”http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/apr/23/ulysses-its-still-scandal/Cheers,Chris