The publication by Random House of James Joyce's Ulysses, after the ban had been lifted by Judge John M. Woolsey's epoch-making decision, lends importance to the Modem Library edition of A Portrait of the Artist as a young Man. This earlier autobiographical novel is a prelude to Ulysses, and it makes clear the method and the scope of the latter work. As the first novel to employ the stream of consciousness technique, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man created a revolution in modern fiction.