Samuel Roth, a New York editor, bookseller and publisher of avant-garde literature, first became associated with Joyce in 1925—26 when he reprinted, without Joyce’s stated permission, five fragments from Joyce’s current Work in Progress in his new magazine, Two Worlds. Buoyed by this success, Roth launched a second magazine, Two Worlds Monthly, a journal "Devoted to the Increase of the Gaiety of Nations," with pirated, expurgated and corrupt printings of Ulysses. Incensed, both for artistic as well as financial reasons, Joyce and Beach initiated legal action against Roth and at the same time raised a call-to-arms against such infringement in literary, artistic and intellectual communities world-wide.

A. While in London in 1921 as a reporter on assignment for the New York Herald, Samuel Roth sent Beach his subscription form requesting a copy of the first edition of Ulysses, the cheapest 150 franc edition. The postscript reads: "Kindly send me several copies of prospectus for my friends."

Below it is an early letter (probably the first) from Roth to Joyce dated 12 February 1921, in which he asks to meet Joyce saying, "Of all the writers in Europe to-day you have made the most intimate appeal to me…." Tellingly, in the postscript he asks, "Why is Ulysses not yet in book form?"

B. In the right corner is a photograph of Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford, James Joyce and John Quinn in 1923, at the time they discussed the founding of a new magazine to be edited by Ford, The Transatlantic Review. Its April 1924 issue contained the first installment of Joyce’s recently dubbed Work in Progress. This photo is inscribed by the four men to Sylvia Beach.

C. Volume 1, number 1, of Roth’s Two Worlds Monthly (June 1926). As editor Roth states: "This issue of Two Worlds Monthly is dedicated to James Joyce who will probably plead the cause of our time at the bar of posterity." Beside it is volume 3, number 1, which contains his ninth installment of Ulysses (the first part of "Oxen") with the banner: "Mr. Roth Haled [sic] into Court."

D. A copy of the Protest, in English, initiated against Roth and signed by 167 prominent writers, artists, and thinkers, including W.B. Yeats, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot and Albert Einstein.

E. An article from The Humanist (April 1927) which reproduces a list of autographs of the people protesting Roth’s pirating of Ulysses.

F. Ulysses, second edition, second printing, unlimited edition, 1927 (also known as the ninth Shakespeare & Co. printing). In 1926, a re-set edition of Ulysses was published with numerous corrections. Unfortunately, more than a few errors were introduced in the process. This habit of complementing corrections with corruptions has plagued every subsequent edition of Ulysses.

G. Ulysses, third edition (piratical), 1929. Published by Samuel Roth and printed by Adolph and Rudolph Loewinger, New York. This unauthorized edition was intended to closely mimic the 1927 Shakespeare & Co. printing (item E). However, there are numerous subtle differences between Roth’s and the legitimate 1927 printing: the paper is heavier and of different stock, the font is smaller, the edition lacks spine text, the wrappers lack folding flaps, and the book is slightly thicker (although the pagination is identical). More importantly, the text is highly corrupt and contains numerous errors, some of which are quite serious. One of the most serious, and most comic, errors occurs on the first page (the "He" of the passage below, is Buck Mulligan).

Lamentably, when Bennett Cerf of Random House asked Joyce for a copy of Ulysses from which the first authorized American edition would be based, someone mistakenly sent a copy of Roth’s piratical edition, resulting in the first American edition inheriting all of the errors of the piratical edition.

H. The dispute over Ulysses gained a large degree of press coverage:

The Nation (8 December 1926) reprints Roth’s advertisement for his publication of Ulysses. Several years later, Beach removed the ad from her collection of clippings and sent it to T.S. Eliot, at Faber & Faber, who was considering publishing Ulysses;

In an editorial in the New Statesman (19 March 1927) Roth defended himself as best he could. He offered to "help" Joyce by paying him $2,000 a year in exchange for the copyright on all his work;

The Tribune, South Bend (5 December 1926) runs an announcement for the Two Worlds Monthly;

In the New York World (20 May 1928), Roth claims that publication of Joyce in his Two Worlds Monthly was detrimental to the journal’s popularity and circulation;

Later, the Chicago Tribune (4 November 1931) reported on the continuing controversy surrounding the piracy of Ulysses even after Joyce’s Supreme Court injunction against Roth.

I. In the left corner is a photo of Déjeuner Ulysse, the luncheon at the Hôtel Leopold in Les-Vaux-de-Cernay that was organized by Beach and Adrienne Monnier in June 1929 to celebrate Bloomsday and the seventh anniversary of the publication of the first edition. Among the guests were Phillippe Soupault, Eduard Dujardin, Paul Valery, Thomas McGreevy, Beach and Monnier. Joyce is seated at the center. Although Samuel Beckett was also present, he is not pictured here.

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