Barney Rosset

An Autobiography of Barney Rosset, Jr

Subject Is Left-Handed

Alan Kaufman

Neil Ortenberg

The Outlaw Bible of American Literature will serve as a primer for generational revolt and an enduring document of the visionary tradition of authenticity and nonconformity in literature. This exuberant manifesto includes lives of the writers, on-the-scene testimony, seminal underground articles never before collected, photographs, cartoons, drawings, interviews, and, above all, the writings. Beat, Punk, Noir, Prison, Porn, Cyber, Queer, Anarchist, Blue Collar, Pulp, Sci-Fi, Utopian, Mobster, Political—all are represented. The Bible includes fiction, essays, letters, memoirs, journalism, lyrics, diaries, manifestoes, and selections from seminal film scripts, including Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, and Taxi Driver. The editors have brought together an extravagant, eclectic, searing, and unforgettable body of work, showcasing Hustlers, Mavericks, Contrarians, Rockers, Barbarians, Gangsters, Hedonists, Provocateurs, Hipsters, and Revolutionaries—all in one raucous cauldron of rebellion and otherness. This prose companion to the best-selling award-winning Outlaw Bible of American Poetry features selections from Hunter S. Thompson, Exene Cervenka, Patti Smith, Dennis Cooper, Malcolm X, Sonny Barger, Maggie Estep, Lenny Bruce, Henry Miller, R. Crumb, Philip K. Dick, Iceberg Slim, Gil Scott-Heron, Kathy Acker, Jim Carroll, Charles Mingus, Norman Mailer, and many others.

The Outlaw Bible of American Literature

(Book). Preface by Paul Auster * Foreword by Edward Beckett Edited by Lois Oppenheim * Curated by Astrid Myers Rosset "You know, Barney, I think my writing days are over," Beckett writes in 1954 when most of his output was still ahead of him. And later, "Sick of all this old vomit and despair more and more of ever being able to puke again. In a world where writers switch publishers at the first shake of a martini pitcher, our trans-Atlantic communications seemed to float on a sea of tranquility and trust." from Dear Mr. Beckett Through letters, contracts, photos, interviews, speeches, reviews and memorabilia most of which has never before been made public a rare personal and professional friendship unfolds between these two oddly shy daredevils; through their embrace, they shifted and turned the tide of literature in America. Among the many never before published entries: * Beckett's discussion about acting with his long time director, Alan Schneider, as they huddled with Barney Rosset in his East Hampton quonset hut about their upcoming rehearsal with Buster Keaton. * Susan Sontag correspondence on her Godot production in Sarajevo. * The comprehensive Endgame file about the controversial production in Cambridge Mass which proceeded against Beckett's wishes. * Interviews with Eugene Ionesco and Alain Robbe-Grillet about Beckett and Rosset and the Absurdists. * Estelle Parsons correspondence with Beckett about the actress's proposal to perform Godot with Shelley Winters on Broadway. * Comprehensive file on the genesis and development of Beckett's Rockaby with Billie Whitelaw. * Comprehensive file on Rosset's termination from Grove, the press he founded and championed.

The Samuel Beckett File Correspondence, Interviews, Photos

Dear Mr. Beckett - Letters from the Publisher

Genet…Beckett…Burroughs…Miller…Ionesco, Ōe, 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.

My Life in Publishing and How I Fought Censorship

Rosset

«La ribellione scorre nel sangue di famiglia.» Inizia così, come un dardo scoccato contro il conformismo e insieme una rivendicazione genetica, l’autobiografia di Barney Rosset, uno degli editori più significativi del nostro tempo, colui che ha rivoluzionato l’editoria americana liberandola dagli oltraggi della censura e riplasmando il linguaggio, la letteratura, l’eros. In risposta al volto compassato e stolido del puritanesimo ha dato alle stampe Beckett, Genet, Che Guevara, gli scrittori della Beat Generation e l’Autobiografia di Malcolm X.Cresciuto nella Chicago dei gangster con il mito di John Dillinger, ateo dall’età di sei anni, in terza media già titola il giornalino della scuola Anti-Everything. Edonista controcorrente e facile alla noia, dopo essersi sposato con la celebre pittrice Joan Mitchell ed essersi trasferito nel Greenwich Village – l’amalgama culturale newyorchese per eccellenza – nel 1952 rileva una piccola casa editrice, Grove Press, e inizia la sua avventura. Comincia a pubblicare Henry James e autori europei come Marguerite Duras, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Eugène Ionesco e il marchese de Sade. Poi, al termine di una lotta all’ultimo sangue con la censura, riporta allo splendore originario L’amante di Lady Chatterley di Lawrence e Tropico del Cancro di Miller.L’editore fuorilegge è l’autobiografia di Barney Rosset, scritta con la collaborazione di amici e colleghi. Un’opera che svela i retroscena sulla genesi di molti capolavori e illumina il rapporto tra i grandi protagonisti della cultura internazionale del Novecento: l’editore si racconta come se reggesse le fila non solo della sua vita pubblica e di quella privata, strettamente intrecciate, ma anche di un’epoca – un’epoca che Rosset supera, anticipa, sferza.Se, come scrive Luca Formenton nel suo testo introduttivo, per portare avanti il lavoro editoriale «è necessaria una fede assoluta», tra le pagine dell’Editore fuorilegge si cela il modo migliore per trovarla.

Cinquant'anni di libri contro

L'editore fuorilegge

Ed Halter

In this first collection of film writing from Evergreen Review, the legendary publication's important contributions to film culture are available in a single volume. Featuring such legendary writers as Nat Hentoff, Norman Mailer, Parker Tyler, and Amos Vogel, the book presents writing on the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ousmane Sembene, Andy Warhol, and others and offers incisive essays and interviews from the late 1950s to early 1970s. Articles explore politics, revolution, and the cinema; underground and experimental film, pornography, and censorship; and the rise of independent film against the dominance of Hollywood. A new introductory essay by Ed Halter reveals the important role Evergreen Review and its publisher, Grove Press, played in advancing cinema during this period through innovations in production, distribution, and exhibition. Editor Ed Halter began working on this book in 2001 with Barney Rosset, using his personal files and interviews with him as initial research.

The Evergreen Review Film Reader

From the Third Eye

This selection from the first ten years of the Evergreen Review gives the full flavor of the energy, savvy, excitement, and gall that characterized the magazine during the days of its publication. It also happens to bring together some of the world’s best writers in one volume, in the company of their peers. Evergreen was more than another literary magazine. Founded by Barney Rossett of Grove Press and publishing from 1957 through 1973 (it now exists as an online only magazine), it was the voice of a movement that helped to change the attitudes and prejudices of the culture at large through the language of art—and succeeded. It was always damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. Here are original short stories by Samuel Beckett and Jack Kerouac (with his “October in the Railroad Earth” predating the publication of On the Road); Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” (previously published only as a pamphlet); a selection from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind; and a passage from Alexander Trocchi’s Cain’s Book. Also included are a fantastic sample of the original and iconic magazine covers which were works of art themselves—a heavily bearded Ginsberg cavorting in a sport coat and Uncle Sam top hat in 1966—and several reprinted comic strips; notably, Michael O’Donoghue’s “The Adventure of Phoebe Zeit-geist.”

1957-1966

Evergreen Review Reader

Through letters, contracts, photos, interviews, speeches, reviews, and memorabilia - most of which has never before been made public - a rare personal and professional friendship unfolds between these two oddly shy daredevils, shifting and turning the tide of literature in America. Barney Rosset, more than any other publisher, fiercely advocated for the most daring and influential writers of the 20th century. Through his Grove imprint, whole generations have embraced some of the greatest playwrights of our time, including Genet, Pinter, Mamet, Ionesco, D.H. Lawrence, and of course Samuel Beckett. Scholars, students, and fans of literary letters will find this volume beguiling reading.--Publisher.

Barney Rosset

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