How To Ban A Book: Lessons from the Cancellation of James Joyce’s Ulysses

​Presented by Dr Steve Carey DPhil (Oxon) for Melbourne Rare Book Week

​The publication of James Joyce’s masterpiece in Paris in 1922 was fraught with difficulties, not least legal. Indeed, the book was banned as obscene even before it was published. Joyce’s own position was clear: “If Ulysses is not fit to read, then life is not fit to be lived.” Yet even today this explosive book, revered as a twentieth century classic, still has the power to shock new readers and confront our assumptions about what is and is not permissible. Decades ago Joyce’s biographer Richard Ellmann wrote that, “We are still learning to be Joyce’s contemporaries,” and the prospect looms of Ulysses ending up banned or burnt all over again.

​*This is a free event - registration required in advance.

​Image credits: Paul Cadmus (American, 1904 – 1999), Jerry, 1931, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in., Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio), Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 2008.140