Rosset
My Life in Publishing and How I Fought Censorship
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Genet…Beckett…Burroughs…Miller…Ionesco, Oe, Duras. Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard. Hubert Selby Jr. and John Rechy. The legendary film I Am Curious (Yellow). The books that assaulted the fort of propriety that was the United States in the 1950s and ’60s, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Tropic of Cancer. The Evergreen Review. Victorian “erotica.” The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A bombing, a sit-in, and a near-fistfight with Norman Mailer. The common thread between these disparate elements, a number of which reshaped modern culture, was Barney Rosset.
Rosset was the antidote to the trope of the “gentleman publisher” personified by other pioneering figures of the industry such as Alfred A. Knopf, Bennett Cerf and James Laughlin. If Barney saw a crowd heading one way—he looked the other. If he knew something was forbidden, he regarded it as a plus. Unsurprisingly, financial ruin, along with the highs and lows of critical reception, marked his career. But his unswerving dedication to publishing what he wanted made him one of the most influential publishers ever.
Rosset began work on his autobiography a decade before his death in 2012, and several publishers and a number of editors worked with him on the project. Now, at last, in his own words, we have a portrait of the man who reshaped how we think about language, literature—and sex. Here are the stories behind the filming of Norman Mailer’s Maidstone and Samuel Beckett’s Film; the battles with the US government over Tropic of Cancer and much else; the search for Che’s diaries; his romance with the expressionist painter Joan Mitchell, and more.
At times appalling, more often inspiring, never boring or conventional: this is Barney Rosset, uncensored.
Illustrated with black-and-white photographs; includes index
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this posthumous memoir, Rosset recounts his experiences growing up in Chicago and his life in the publishing industry from the 1950s through to the 1990s and 2000s. Rosset was a WWII veteran and a skilled raconteur, perhaps best known for fighting off legal challenges from the censors (and the post office) in order to publish D.H. Lawrence's unexpurgated Lady Chatterley's Lover and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. His friendship and correspondence with Samuel Beckett led to a long publishing relationship and to Rosset serving as the theatrical agent of Beckett's estate in the U.S. Some of his other famous friends included publisher Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press, author Kenzaburo Oe, and playwright Harold Pinter. Rosset had a major interest in producing theater and films, where he found the same kinds of censorship battles, such as over the risqu Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow), as he did in literature. Rosset delves into his personal life and recounts his relationships and romances, starting with his first wife, the painter Joan Mitchell. Rosset's life and career are essential parts of American literary history, and being able to read the story in his own glittering prose is invaluable. B&w photos.
