--- title: Bloomsday: The True James Joyce Story Behind the Famous Date description: June 16 was big day for Leopold Bloom, and for James Joyce too canonical: https://time.com/3911301/bloomsday-ulysses-date-joyce-nora-barnacle/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-16T11:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:10.886Z article:section: History og:title: Bloomsday: The True James Joyce Story Behind the Famous Date og:description: June 16 was big day for Leopold Bloom, and for James Joyce too og:url: https://time.com/3911301/bloomsday-ulysses-date-joyce-nora-barnacle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c28944197956ca8/6988533a0b72e3f0796e4552/1101340129_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jan 29 1934 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bloomsday: The True James Joyce Story Behind the Famous Date twitter:description: June 16 was big day for Leopold Bloom, and for James Joyce too twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c28944197956ca8/6988533a0b72e3f0796e4552/1101340129_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Romantic True Story Behind James Joyce's Bloomsday  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 16, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  The Jan. 29, 1934, cover of TIME The Jan. 29, 1934, cover of TIMECover Credit: MARCEL MAUREL  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 16, 2015 11:00 AM UTC The day June 16, 1904, was a big one in the romantic life of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyces’ _Ulysses_, at least inside his head. In celebration of that day, and Bloom’s fictional perambulations around Dublin during the course of it, James Joyce fans mark the date each year as “Bloomsday.” It is, as TIME [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1982-07-12/page/99/) in 1982, “a sacred date on the calendar of all Joyceans.” But for James Joyce, the action on that day was even more momentous and concrete. As TIME related in [a 1959 story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1959-11-09/page/108/) about the writer, that was one of the most important days in his life: --- > “” --- Joyce’s masterwork was published in Paris in 1922 and finally cleared for U.S. publication—after a long battle over whether it was obscene—in 1934. **_Read TIME’s 1934 cover story about_** **Ulysses,** **_free of charge, here on Time.com:_** [_Ulysses_ ](http://time.com/2881457/ulysses-lands/)[Lands](http://time.com/2881457/ulysses-lands/) ### On Bloomsday, Marilyn Monroe Reading Joyce’s Ulysses  Marilyn Monroe, Long Island, N.Y., 1955. 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