
In 1933, with the prospect of publishing the first legal U.S. version of Ulysses, Random House hired lawyer Morris Ernst to import the French edition, planning have it seized in Customs and start a legal battle. The specific copy to be seized was stuffed with glowing praise for Ulysses by Ezra Pound and other writers, thus entering into the court record a strong argument for Ulysses as an important literary landmark. The plan almost fell through when Customs officials in New York, suffering on a record hot day, tried to admit the book's bag without searching it. In the subsequent court case, United States v. One Book Called Ulysses, Judge John M. Woolsey ruled against censorship of Ulysses, which allowed the importation of other literary works regardless of sexual content. --Tobias Mutter