Local Author Adam Morgan On How a 1921 Obscenity Trial Over “Ulysses” Speaks to Censorship Issues Today

[Jim Burton]

https://indyweek.com/news/culture/adam- ... y-feature/

The hook for the story of Margaret C. Anderson is undeniably her connection to James Joyce’s Ulysses, so we’ll start there. Anderson was the founder and editor of a literary magazine called The Little Review for about 15 years, beginning in 1914, in which she championed controversial art.

In 1918, Anderson and Ezra Pound, who was serving as the Review’s poetry editor at the time, began publishing one chapter of Ulysses per issue. To say the excerpts were unpopular is an understatement. Three issues were seized and burned by the Post Office, which could operate as a federal censor at that time. Many readers hated their first encounter with Ulysses, which would go on to be considered the greatest modernist novel, and begged Anderson to stop serializing it. A bit of a tyrant in terms of taste, Anderson refused.

In fact, she decided to try a new guerrilla marketing tactic. Anderson sent copies of the magazine, including a chapter of Ulysses, to as many New York millionaires as she could, in hopes they would patronize her Little Review. The strategy backfired when a copy scandalized the daughter of a recipient with connections.