Barnet Lee "Barney" Rosset, Jr. (May 28, 1922 – February 21, 2012) was a pioneering American book and magazine publisher. An avant-garde taste maker, he founded Grove Press in 1951 and ''Evergreen Review'' in 1957, both of which gave him platforms for curating world-class and, in several cases, Nobel prize-winning work by authors including

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...

(1969),

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

(1971),

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...

(1990), Kenzaburō Ōe (1994) and

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that span ...

(2005). A voracious reader and a resourceful editor, Rosset was the first to publish

Beat poets Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ...

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian an ...

, William S. Burroughs and

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

, a who's who of playwrights including

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and polit ...

and

, political biographies like

Alex Haley Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family.'' ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and ...

's '' The Autobiography of Malcolm X'', erotic literature like the ''

Story of O ''Story of O'' (french: Histoire d'O, link=no, ) is an erotic novel published in 1954 by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage, and published in French by Jean-Jacques Pauvert. Desclos did not reveal herself as the autho ...

'', groundbreaking gay fiction by

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Thief ...

, and banned classics such as

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi- autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical re ...

's ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towa ...

'' and

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

's ''

Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, wh ...

''. Rosset's insistence on publishing "banned" books permanently redefined American obscenity law. "To do ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' before ''Tropic of Cancer'' would be more acceptable because D.H. Lawrence was a famous writer and revered at many levels," Rosset said in 2009, explaining his tactical reasoning after the fact. "''Lady Chatterley'' would be more feasible to make a battle plan for, and we did exactly that." It started with an uncensored version of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', 30 years after its initial U.K. publication. After his first victory, Rosset moved on to the second, waging another legal battle to publish Miller's ''Tropic of Cancer''. In 1964, the Supreme Court affirmed Rosset's right to publish Miller's book. France later inducted him as a Commandeur dans l'

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

to honor his contributions to American and world literature; the Norman Mailer Prize was given to him for his work as a "Distinguished Publisher" and the

National Coalition Against Censorship The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), founded in 1974, is an alliance of 50 American non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. NCAC is a New York-bas ...

recognized him for his contributions to

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

Grove Press

Cultural impact

As a publisher, Rosset's taste was sophisticated, multicultural, experimental and literary. As a brand, Grove focused on avant-garde literature, radical politics and erotica. In an interview with ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

'' publisher

Win McCormack Win McCormack is an American publisher and editor from Oregon. He is editor-in-chief of ''Tin House'' magazine and Tin House Books, the former publisher of ''Oregon Magazine'', founder and treasurer of MediAmerica, Inc., and a co-founder of ''Mo ...

, Rosset described what spurred him to publish Beckett: : e day I read in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' about a play called '' Waiting for Godot'' that was going on in Paris. It was a small clip, but it made me very interested. I got hold of it and read it in the French edition. It had something to say to me. Oddly enough, it had a sense of desolation, like Miller, though in its language, its lack of verbiage, it was the opposite of Miller. Still, the sense of a very contemporary lost soul was compelling. I got

Wallace Fowlie Wallace Fowlie (1908–1998) was an American writer and professor of literature. He was the James B. Duke Professor of French Literature at Duke University where he taught from 1964 to the end of his career. Although he published more than twenty ...

to read it.... He read the play and told me that he thought — and this before anybody had really heard about it much — that it would be one of the most important works of the 20th Century.

Legal impact

In 1959, Rosset published D.H. Lawrence's 1928 novel

, which the United States had banned in 1929, on the grounds of obscenity. After the book was released, the U.S. Post Office began confiscating copies sent through the mail, which led Grove Press to take legal action — and win. Emboldened, Rosset subsequently decided to publish

, which was first published in France in 1934, and immediately banned by the U.S. Customs Service from being imported into the U.S., again, on grounds of obscenity. So in 1961, Rosset published it. " wsuits were immediately filed against him and booksellers that chose to carry the controversial novel. The trial eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled in Rosset's favor." In an interview with the ''Brooklyn Rail'', Rosset described the courtroom experience: :

iller The Iller (; ancient name Ilargus) is a river of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is a right tributary of the Danube, long. It is formed at the confluence of the rivers Breitach, Stillach and Trettach near Oberstdorf in the Allg ...

wouldn't go to the court.... He'd been summonsed so he was breaking the law by not going. So we went into court, and the District Attorney questioned me and said, "You see that we have a jury here of men and women with children who go to school right near where that book is on sale, near the subway stop. What'd you think they feel to have their children reading this book?" So I took out the book and started reading and the jury started laughing and they thought it was wonderful. I said to them, "If your children got this book and read the whole book you ought to congratulate them." And they loved it, and they refused to convict me of anything.

''
Evergreen Review ''The Evergreen Review'' is a U.S.-based literary magazine. Its publisher is John Oakes and its editor-in-chief is Dale Peck. The ''Evergreen Review'' was founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 until ...
''

Launched in 1957, ''

Evergreen Review ''The Evergreen Review'' is a U.S.-based literary magazine. Its publisher is John Oakes and its editor-in-chief is Dale Peck. The ''Evergreen Review'' was founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 until ...

'' also pushed the limits of censorship, impacting the culture at large by inspiring younger Americans to embrace the

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. H ...

. Grove Press published

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Genera ...

writers, including

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

, John Rechy,

Hubert Selby, Jr. Hubert "Cubby" Selby Jr. (July 23, 1928 – April 26, 2004) was an American writer. Two of his novels, ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' (1964) and ''Requiem for a Dream'' (1978) explore worlds in the New York area and were adapted as films, both of whi ...

and

. Rosset also purchased the American distribution rights to the Swedish film ''

I Am Curious (Yellow) ''I Am Curious (Yellow)'' (, meaning "I Am Curious: A Film in Yellow") is a 1967 Swedish erotic drama film written and directed by Vilgot Sjöman, starring Sjöman and Lena Nyman. It is a companion film to 1968's ''I Am Curious (Blue)''; the t ...

'', which had also briefly been banned in Boston, and later found not to be obscene in a Second Circuit Ruling. The Review shuttered in 1984, only to relaunch in 1998 online and under Rosset's management.

One thing I like about this new form of communication nlineis that you can have an article about, say, the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago like any magazine, but you can also listen to the kind of music they were playing at the time. We can go into new realms of discourse.... They say there's still not enough memory for things like sound and visuals on the Internet, and it costs too much to put a magazine on-line. But that's all going to change fast. To get some idea of how fast, all you have to do is go to Bangkok and see all the poor people selling melons on the streets; and they all have cellular phones.

In 2013, soon after Rosset's death, the ''Evergreen Review'' ceased publication, only to be revived in 2017 under the management of John Oakes who got his start in publishing in 1987 as an assistant editor at Barney Rosset's Grove Press. The magazine, which also has a publishing arm called Foxrock Books "builds on Rosset’s legacy of searching out the stories that aren't being told or aren’t being heard: stories that challenge our sensibilities and expand our understanding of the way people actually live in the world, and the way their truths can be expressed."

Background

Born and raised in Chicago to a well-to-do Jewish father, also named Barney, who owned a bank, and an

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

mother, Mary (née Tansey), Rosset attended the progressive Francis Parker School, where he was best friends with

Haskell Wexler Haskell Wexler, ASC (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the Inte ...

who went on to become a renowned cinematographer. According to Rosset,

Robert Morss Lovett Robert Morss Lovett (December 25, 1870 – February 8, 1956) was an American academic, writer, editor, political activist, and government official. Background Lovett was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University i ...

, the grandfather of Rosset's high school sweetheart, and professor of English at the University of Chicago, was also a great influence on him. Rosset attended Swarthmore College for one year before enlisting in the army in 1942. It was there that he first discovered the work of

. During World War II, Rosset served in the

Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...

as an officer in a photographic company stationed in Kunming, China. In 2002, more than 60 years later, Rosset collected some of his wartime photography for a NYC gallery exhibit that included graphic photos of wounded and dead Chiang Kai-shek soldiers. In 1949, Rosset married

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of th ...

painter Joan Mitchell, and settled in Greenwich Village. Although Rosset's initial ambition was to be a filmmaker like his childhood friend Haskell Wexler, a documentary called ''Strange Victory'' about racism in a post World War II America that he produced, failed. After divorcing Mitchell, Rosset took courses at the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSS ...

, and worked for '' Monthly Review Press'' magazine. A friend of Mitchell's told Rosset about Grove Press and that the original founders wanted to sell. Rosset purchased it in 1951 for three thousand dollars, and served as publisher until 1985 when he sold the press to Ann and

George Weidenfeld George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, (13 September 1919 – 20 January 2016) was a British publisher, philanthropist, and newspaper columnist. He was also a lifelong Zionist and renowned as a master networker. He was on good terms with popes, ...

. Rosset was married five times. His second wife Loly Eckert was a sales manager at Grove Press, and together they had a son named Peter. Rosset went on to have three more children: Son Beckett (named for Samuel Beckett) and two daughters—Tansey and Chantal. Rosset died after a double heart valve replacement in 2012, and his fifth wife, Astrid Meyers, whom he married in 2007, and also a former managing editor of ''Evergreen Review,'' survives him.

Awards

* In 1999, Rosset was awarded the French title Commandeur dans l'

. * On October 21, 2008, Rosset was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship for his work defending free expression. * On November 19, 2008, Rosset received the lifetime achievement

Literarian Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

from the

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

in honor of his contributions to American publishing. * In 2012, he was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for "Distinguished Publisher."

Filmography

* "Obscene" is a documentary feature about Rosset by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor that was released September 26, 2008.''Obscene''
/ref> The film was a selection of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Features commentary by

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...

, William S. Burroughs, Jim Carroll,

Elsa Dorfman Elsa Dorfman (April 26, 1937May 30, 2020) was an American portrait photographer. She worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was known for her use of a large-format instant Polaroid camera. Early life and education Dorfman was born in Cambrid ...

Al Goldstein Alvin "Al" Goldstein (January 10, 1936December 19, 2013) was an American pornographer. He is known for helping normalize hardcore pornography in the United States. Background Goldstein was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a Jewish family. He ...

, Erica Jong,

Ray Manzarek Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. (né Manczarek; February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013) was an American keyboardist. He is best known as a member of the Doors, co-founding the band with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison in 1965. Manzarek was induc ...

, Michael McClure,

, John Rechy, Ed Sanders, Floyd Salas,

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' ...

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

and

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

. * ''Barney's Wall: A Portrait of a Game Changer'' is a documentary produced by FoxHog Productions and Rosset's widow Astrid Myers. It tells a story about a painting that Rosset was painting on the walls of their apartment, which his wife had to move after Rosset's death when she had to relocate.

Bibliography

*Briggs, Joe Bob. ''Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies that Changed History'' *Glass, Loren. ''Counterculture Colophon: Grove Press, the Evergreen Review, and the Incorporation of the Avant-Garde''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0804784160 *Halter, Ed, and B. Rosset
''From the Third Eye: The Evergreen Review Film Reader''
New York: Seven Stories Press, 2018. ISBN 1609806158 *''Review of Contemporary Fiction'', Vol. X, no. 3, fall 1990, "Grove Press Issue." *Rosset, Barney. ''Rosset: My Life in Publishing and How I Fought Censorship''. New York: OR Books, 2017. ISBN 1944869042 *Rosenthal, Michael. "Barney: Grove Press and Barney Rosset" New York: Arcade Publishing, 2017. ISBM 978-1628726503

External links

Articles, obituaries and interviews

* *Menand, Louis
"Banned Books and Blockbusters"
''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', December 12, 2016. *Thomas, Louisa
"The Most Dangerous Man in Publishing"
''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'', December 15, 2008.
Article about Barney Rosset
in ''International Herald Tribune'', September 2008. *Oakes, John
"Remembering Barney Rosset"
in Daily PEN American, February 27, 2012. *Martin, Douglas

''New York Times'', February 22, 2012. *Barney Rosset with Williams Cole
"In Conversation: A Life in Underground Letters"
''The Brooklyn Rail'', March 2, 2012.

Banned classics

The American Library Association's List of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century that have been banned or challenged

Film

Grove Press and ''Evergreen Review''

''Evergreen Review''
the online home of Evergreen. * The current incarnation of Grove Press i
Grove Atlantic

Television

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosset, Barney 1922 births 2012 deaths Converts to Roman Catholicism Businesspeople from Chicago Businesspeople from New York City American book publishers (people) American magazine publishers (people) American people of Irish descent American people of Jewish descent Free speech activists United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army officers War photographers American entertainment industry businesspeople Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 20th-century American businesspeople Military personnel from Illinois Francis W. Parker School (Chicago) alumni