This past February, the iconoclast publisher Barney Rosset died at the age of 89. Rosset was the publisher of Grove Press from 1951 until 1985. He published D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in its first unexpurgated U.S. edition in 1957, and in 1964 he published Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in its original uncensored form, fighting and winning the legal right to do so all the way up to the Supreme Court. In recognition of his contributions to both American and world literature, Rosset was awarded the Pen International Publisher Citation, the French title “Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” and a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation.
Barney Rosset in front of the “Join the Underground” poster featuring an illustration by Tomi Ungerer satirizing American involvement in Vietnam.
