Banned books are a hot topic in today’s divisive society. Groups are out sharing information, urging people to help stop censorship, and fighting to keep free speech alive. As my librarian wife Clara often says, “The collection isn’t complete unless there’s something to offend everybody.” Or monitor your own children, not mine. You don’t like a book, don’t read it and forbid your children from doing so. Good luck with that. I made a point to find books that were forbidden to me.
I wonder how many of the free-speech advocates are even aware of Barney Rosset. If they don’t, they damned well should. Rosset’s face should be on posters, flags and zines. He was a civil rights leader who may have stayed out of politics as much as possible, but he was not only a soldier in the war against censorship, he gave everything he had to help ensure you and I had the freedom of choice.
Rosset was born into an affluent family in 1922. He was a photographer in World War II. Barney’s father was in the banking industry, but that held no interest for him. Barney Rosset’s passion was for the arts.
His initial interest was in filmmaking, but Rosset loved literature. While in New York, Barney Rosset purchased a small publishing company called Grove Press. They were located on Grove Street, in Greenwich Village. Grove only did three books before Barney bought the company for three thousand dollars in 1951. His aim was to be an alternative to mainstream publishing.
Grove Press did controversial works by Jean Genet, Samuel Becket, and the Marquis de Sade. Most of these books went under the legal radar, but trouble began when they published D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1959. Copies were seized by the United States Post Office, who didn’t want obscene materials sent through their system. Rosset sued and won, but it was at no small cost.
The next legal battle was with Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. Censors finally agreed that the Lawrence book had literary value, but Henry Miller was nothing but filth. Booksellers were sued for selling the book. Once again Rosset won the battle, but the battles were expensive and extraordinarily stressful.
Lady Chatterlay’s Lover and Tropic of Cancer were finally accepted, but then Grove Press dropped a literary bomb on the world. There was no precedent to William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. I don’t think any book, before or since, raised such a furor. More legal struggles, more strife.
Meanwhile, Barney Rosset started a magazine called Evergreen Review. Allen Ginsberg’s incendiary poem, “Howl”, was first published in its pages. Which got him in more trouble. The magazine featured gay-themed fiction, stories and articles about race, communism, sex. Gay men were on the cover, angry black people, feminists, radicals, confrontational artists.
Russet felt that racism and sexual oppression were nearly the same thing. Both denied freedom and civil rights to citizens. He was the only publisher willing to touch The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Grove did a book of Che Guevara's diaries, which resulted in their offices being bombed.
Grove published nearly all the beat writers, Hubert Selby Jr.’s Last Exit to Brooklyn, Bukowski, Albert Camusk, Timothy Leary, and dozens of other well-known as well as forgotten authors.
Rosset also reprinted vintage Victorian erotica, much of which dealt with naughty spankings. These books not only brought in revenue, Barney personally enjoyed them.
Bit by bit Barney Rosset’s money dwindled. He inherited a lot of land that he loved, but sold it off an acre or two at a time to cover his legal troubles.
Rosset even had trouble with the left. Misguided feminists protested the office, claiming he published sexist materials. Grove never had a lot of employees, but they demanded to be unionized, which was infeasible for such a small, largely unprofitable venture.
After years and years of troubled but distinguished work in publishing, Rosset sold Grove Press to a British publishing firm. Not a shrewd businessman, Barney was fired within a year.
I sort of get it. Any business, book publishing or anything else, must be profitable. Barney Rosset didn’t give much thought about what might sell. He published the things he liked and that he felt were important. I don’t understand, however, why anyone would buy Grove Press and get rid of the one thing that made it Grove Press: Barney Rosset. There wasn’t much room for a guy like him in the capitalistic eighties.
Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Russot and Grove Press tells his story. It’s an exhilarating ride through the country’s past of free speech heroes and dark censorship. Barney is shown toward the end of his life, living in poverty. His sense of humor seemed to be intact, but there’s a cloud of sadness upon him.
Barney Rosset shook the pillars of culture, he hobbed and nobbed with the brilliant, the profane, and the notorious, and he went up against powerful censors and bigots. Rosset rode the wild wind, he made history, and while he lost it all in the end, no one could take away his accomplishments.
Grove Press exists today, as a subsidiary of Atlantic Books. I'm sure they are doing great work and publishing worthwhile authors. It's hard, though, to forget the way Barney Rosset was ousted from the company. Even if it was done well before the current employees were even hired.
Barney Rosset and his work should be taught in schools, but the same kind of oppressors he struggled against in his life would reject the idea of it. Hopefully intelligent, inquisitive young people will seek out the works Barney dedicated his life to.
Barney Rosset, scholar, freedom fighter, pornographer, radical, publisher, died in 2012. He was ninety years old. More importantly, he lived. He fought for what he loved, and for the freedoms we take for granted today.
Yet still the battles continue. Things are better now, thanks to courageous individuals like Barney Rosset, but the censors are like cockroaches. No matter how many we exterminate, they never seem to become extinct.
Written by Mark Sieber
I wonder how many of the free-speech advocates are even aware of Barney Rosset. If they don’t, they damned well should. Rosset’s face should be on posters, flags and zines. He was a civil rights leader who may have stayed out of politics as much as possible, but he was not only a soldier in the war against censorship, he gave everything he had to help ensure you and I had the freedom of choice.Rosset was born into an affluent family in 1922. He was a photographer in World War II. Barney’s father was in the banking industry, but that held no interest for him. Barney Rosset’s passion was for the arts.
His initial interest was in filmmaking, but Rosset loved literature. While in New York, Barney Rosset purchased a small publishing company called Grove Press. They were located on Grove Street, in Greenwich Village. Grove only did three books before Barney bought the company for three thousand dollars in 1951. His aim was to be an alternative to mainstream publishing.
Grove Press did controversial works by Jean Genet, Samuel Becket, and the Marquis de Sade. Most of these books went under the legal radar, but trouble began when they published D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1959. Copies were seized by the United States Post Office, who didn’t want obscene materials sent through their system. Rosset sued and won, but it was at no small cost.
The next legal battle was with Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. Censors finally agreed that the Lawrence book had literary value, but Henry Miller was nothing but filth. Booksellers were sued for selling the book. Once again Rosset won the battle, but the battles were expensive and extraordinarily stressful.
Lady Chatterlay’s Lover and Tropic of Cancer were finally accepted, but then Grove Press dropped a literary bomb on the world. There was no precedent to William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. I don’t think any book, before or since, raised such a furor. More legal struggles, more strife.
Meanwhile, Barney Rosset started a magazine called Evergreen Review. Allen Ginsberg’s incendiary poem, “Howl”, was first published in its pages. Which got him in more trouble. The magazine featured gay-themed fiction, stories and articles about race, communism, sex. Gay men were on the cover, angry black people, feminists, radicals, confrontational artists.
Russet felt that racism and sexual oppression were nearly the same thing. Both denied freedom and civil rights to citizens. He was the only publisher willing to touch The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Grove did a book of Che Guevara's diaries, which resulted in their offices being bombed.
Grove published nearly all the beat writers, Hubert Selby Jr.’s Last Exit to Brooklyn, Bukowski, Albert Camusk, Timothy Leary, and dozens of other well-known as well as forgotten authors.
Rosset also reprinted vintage Victorian erotica, much of which dealt with naughty spankings. These books not only brought in revenue, Barney personally enjoyed them.
Bit by bit Barney Rosset’s money dwindled. He inherited a lot of land that he loved, but sold it off an acre or two at a time to cover his legal troubles.
Rosset even had trouble with the left. Misguided feminists protested the office, claiming he published sexist materials. Grove never had a lot of employees, but they demanded to be unionized, which was infeasible for such a small, largely unprofitable venture.
After years and years of troubled but distinguished work in publishing, Rosset sold Grove Press to a British publishing firm. Not a shrewd businessman, Barney was fired within a year.
I sort of get it. Any business, book publishing or anything else, must be profitable. Barney Rosset didn’t give much thought about what might sell. He published the things he liked and that he felt were important. I don’t understand, however, why anyone would buy Grove Press and get rid of the one thing that made it Grove Press: Barney Rosset. There wasn’t much room for a guy like him in the capitalistic eighties.
Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Russot and Grove Press tells his story. It’s an exhilarating ride through the country’s past of free speech heroes and dark censorship. Barney is shown toward the end of his life, living in poverty. His sense of humor seemed to be intact, but there’s a cloud of sadness upon him.
Barney Rosset shook the pillars of culture, he hobbed and nobbed with the brilliant, the profane, and the notorious, and he went up against powerful censors and bigots. Rosset rode the wild wind, he made history, and while he lost it all in the end, no one could take away his accomplishments.
Grove Press exists today, as a subsidiary of Atlantic Books. I'm sure they are doing great work and publishing worthwhile authors. It's hard, though, to forget the way Barney Rosset was ousted from the company. Even if it was done well before the current employees were even hired.
Barney Rosset and his work should be taught in schools, but the same kind of oppressors he struggled against in his life would reject the idea of it. Hopefully intelligent, inquisitive young people will seek out the works Barney dedicated his life to.Barney Rosset, scholar, freedom fighter, pornographer, radical, publisher, died in 2012. He was ninety years old. More importantly, he lived. He fought for what he loved, and for the freedoms we take for granted today.
Yet still the battles continue. Things are better now, thanks to courageous individuals like Barney Rosset, but the censors are like cockroaches. No matter how many we exterminate, they never seem to become extinct.
Written by Mark Sieber
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