Barney Rosset

Barnet Lee "Barney" Rosset, Jr. (May 28, 1922 – February 21, 2012) was the owner of the publishing house Grove Press, and publisher and editor-in-chief of the magazine "Evergreen Review". He led a successful legal battle to publish the uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence's novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover", and later was the American publisher of Henry Miller's controversial novel "Tropic of Cancer". The right to publish and distribute Miller's novel in the United States was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1964, in a landmark ruling for free speech and the First Amendment.
Early life.
Rosset was born and raised in Chicago to a Jewish father, Barnet Rosset, and an Irish Catholic mother, Mary (née Tansey). He attended the progressive Francis Parker School, where he was best friends with renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Rosset also said that Robert Morss Lovett, the grandfather of Rosset's high school sweetheart, and professor of English at the University of Chicago had been a great influence on him.
Rosset attended Swarthmore College for one year and then enlisted in the army in 1942. It was at Swarthmore that Rosset discovered the work of Henry Miller.
Career.
During World War II, he served in the Army Signal Corps as an officer in a photographic company stationed in Kunming, China. In 2002, Rosset exhibited a collection of his War Photographs from his time in China in a New York Gallery. The exhibit included graphic photos of wounded and dead Chiang Kai-shek soldiers.
Rosset's initial ambition was to be a filmmaker like his childhood friend Haskell Wexler. Rosset produced a documentary called "Strange Victory" about racism in a post World War II America. The film was a failure.
After divorcing his first wife, painter Joan Mitchell, Rosset took courses at the New School for Social Research and worked for "Monthly Review Press" magazine. A friend of Joan Mitchell's told Rosset about Grove Press and that the original founders wanted to sell. Rosset purchased Grove Press for three thousand dollars.
Personal life.
Rosset married five times. Rosset married American Abstract Expressionist painter Joan Mitchell in France in 1949. The couple settled in Greenwich Village but then later divorced. Mitchell was instrumental in Rosset's acquisition of Grove Press.
Rosset's second wife was Loly Eckert, a sales manager at Grove Press. They had a son named Peter Rosset.
He owned an East Hampton, Long Island quonset hut, previously used as a studio by painter Robert Motherwell.
His final marriage was to Astrid Meyers.
Rosset had three more children after Peter, son Beckett (named for Samuel Beckett) and two daughters—Tansey and Chantal.
Grove Press and "Evergreen Review" writers.
Rosset introduced American readers to numerous significant writers, including Samuel Beckett (Nobel Prize in Literature 1969), Pablo Neruda (Nobel Prize 1971), Octavio Paz (Nobel Prize 1990), Kenzaburō Ōe (Nobel Prize 1994), Harold Pinter (Nobel Prize 2005), Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Khushwant Singh, Jean Genet, John Rechy, Kathy Acker, Eugène Ionesco and Tom Stoppard.
Interviewed by "Tin House" publisher Win McCormack, Rosset talked about publishing Beckett:
In an interview with the "Brooklyn Rail", Rosset spoke about the Henry Miller's "Tropic of Capricorn" being taken to court for obscenity charges:
Launched in 1957, "Evergreen Review" pushed the limits of censorship, inspiring hundreds of thousands of younger Americans to embrace the counterculture. Grove Press published Beat Generation writers, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Rechy, Hubert Selby, Jr. and Jack Kerouac. Rosset also purchased the American distribution rights to the Swedish film "I Am Curious (Yellow)".
The online "Evergreen Review" features Beat classics as well as debuts of contemporary writers. In 2007, Rosset married Astrid Myers, then-managing editor of the online "Evergreen Review". In 2008, Rosset completed writing his autobiography (now published as "Rosset: My Life in Publishing and How I Fought Censorship". He died in 2012 after a double heart valve replacement.
A collection of film criticism, essays, and interviews from the late 1950s to early 1970s from "Evergreen Review", edited by Rosset and Ed Halter, titled "From the Third Eye", was published by Seven Stories Press in 2018.
Film.
"Obscene", a documentary feature about Rosset by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor, was released September 26, 2008. The film was a selection of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Featured in the film are Amiri Baraka, Lenny Bruce, William S. Burroughs, Jim Carroll, Elsa Dorfman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Al Goldstein, Erica Jong, Ray Manzarek, Michael McClure, Henry Miller, John Rechy, Ed Sanders, Floyd Salas, John Sayles, Gore Vidal, John Waters and Malcolm X.
Documentary titled is a project produced by FoxHog Productions and Rosset's last wife, Astrid Myers Rosset. It tells a story about a painting that Rosset was painting on the walls of their apartment. His wife had to move the painting after his dead when she had to relocate.
Awards.
Rosset was awarded the French title Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1999. He was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship on October 21, 2008, for his work in defending free expression. On November 19, 2008, Rosset received the lifetime achievement Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation in honor of his contributions to American publishing. In 2012, he was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for "Distinguished Publisher".