poldy.com is a brand new web site that focuses on making editions of Ulysses such as the brand new Ulysses: A Reader's Edition available to Joyce enthusiasts from around the world. Most affected by the availability of these editions will be Joyceans from the United States where, because of differences in copyright law and the fact that Ulysses was not published there until 1934, twelve years after it was first published in Paris by Sylvia Beach, editions such as the new one edited by Danis Rose and some new reprints of previous editions are not currently available.

It would be wrong to think that in the years in which Ulysses was banned in the United States, that copies of the book never made it into the country. In fact, in the 1920s and 1930s there were numerous copies of Ulysses smuggled into the U.S., and many made their way there from accross the Canadian border! Here at poldy.com, then, we feel that by providing Americans quick and convenient access to editions of Ulysses like the new one edited by Danis Rose, we are simply doing our part to continue a long tradition of "cross-border shopping"! That said, it is important for everyone to know that (sadly, perhaps) there is nothing illegal or immoral about purchasing any edition of Ulysses from our web site nor does such an action infringe upon copyright laws in any way. Any purchaser of Ulysses from poldy.com will simply be buying a copy of the Canadian/U.K. edition from an established Canadian bookseller.

While we are unable to sell books to a university or college bookstore so that students can buy them as texts for their classes (we are, after all, a retailer and not a wholesaler) we can arrange for students to order their copies of Ulysses from us on an individual basis providing we have sufficient advance warning. In such a case, we will also provide a discount for all course orders. Please e-mail us for further information about course orders.

poldy.com is a division of Northwest Passages, a virtual bookstore dedicated to giving cutomers from around the world access to Canadian fiction, poetry, drama, and literary criticism. Established in the summer of 1996 by Paul Martin and Robert Stocks, Northwest Passages has emerged as one of the best resources on the World Wide Web for information about Canadian literature and is beginning to become a site where both academics and non-academics alike can publish their own reviews or literary criticism that focuses primarily on Canadian literature. By now you may be asking "How does Canadian literature have any connection with James Joyce's Ulysses?" Well, it doesn't really, except that Paul Martin, one of the founders of Northwest Passages, is a long-time Joyce fanatic, a University of Alberta PhD student working on Joyce, and a member of the International James Joyce Foundation. Thus, when we discovered that not only was there a new edition of Ulysses on its way but that it also would not be immediately available in the United States, we thought that Northwest Passages could use its bookselling experience to provide a useful service for all readers of Ulysses.

Well, to be honest, it wasn't our first choice but garryowen.com was already taken!

Over the next several months, we will be making every edition of Ulysses currently available in Canada available through our web site. We are also interested in becoming either a seller of used editions of Ulysses or simply serving as a liason between people buying and selling copies of Ulysses. We will also become a source for reviews of and/or information about the new Rose "Ulysses: A Reader's Edition." In this regard, poldy.com welcome any submissions of reviews or comments about this or other editions and we will post everything we receive on our reviews page. We expect that this edition will be generating a great deal of controversy and we will aim to keep people informed about what is said and by whom. Of course, we will also always welcome any comments about our site and how we can improve it. To do so, please e-mail us at nwp@mwsolutions.com.