James Joyce, Ulysses. London: Published for the Egoist Press by John Rodker, Paris, 1922.
1st English edition; previously published in Paris in the same year.
This edition is in fact the 2nd printing (October) of the Paris edition (Shakespeare & Co.; 1,000 copies), which had appeared in the preceding February and sold out almost immediately. 2,000 copies of this 'English edition' were printed in France using the original plates. Serialized installments of Ulysses had first appeared in the Little Review (Chicago) beginning in 1918, but censorial proceedings terminated that serialization in 1920; copies of the magazine were confiscated and the editors were convicted of publishing obscenity. Publication of the complete book met equal resistance, both in the U.S. and in England. As many as a quarter of the total number of copies of the 'English edition' were seized and destroyed by U.S. Customs during attempts to mail the novel to American buyers. The novel remained banned in England and the United States until 1933.
Gift: Benjamin Sonnenberg, Jr.