On November 19th, the National Book Foundation will award Barney Rosset, the legendary publisher, The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Barney Rosset, through his publishing house, Grove Press, and his magazine, The Evergreen Review, introduced American readers to such literary giants as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Jean Genet, and Eugène Ionesco, as well as many of the writers of the Beat generation. But he did so much more than that.
When he took over Grove Press in 1951 it wasn’t much of a publisher. I believe their entire list consisted of three reprints. Yet he took that company and turned it around by throwing free speech in that face of American puritanism, culminating in 1959 when he fought two landmark first amendment battles in order to publish the uncensored version of D.H. Lawrence’s novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer.
Grove Press was never a financial giant—they seemed to always spend more than they brought in. Toward the end of the 60’s Rosset struck it rich when he decided to distribute the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow), but then attempts to duplicate his success failed and money again became scarce. Grove Press was ultimately sold in 1985.
At the age of 86, Mr. Rosset still controls The Evergreen Review which is published online. He continues to promote writers who deserve to be read and we congratulate him for being recognized for his efforts. We also find it refreshing that such a thing could happen. Could it be that America is leaning ever so slightly away from its puritanical roots? One could hope so, but then we find ourselves wondering whether or not D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller can be found anywhere on the shelves of the Wasilla, Alaska library.
December 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
[...] in September, I made note of the fact that good, old Barney Rosset was to be honored at the National Book Awards ceremony. He was, and now there’s a fantastic article on him in [...]