Tribute to Barney Rosset

Stewart Meyer

Barney Rosset toppled the dark gods of censorship and gave us access to a world of unlimited expressive writing. One could imagine Barney Rosset as a guy who was born standing up, opinionated, and litigation ready.  Combat prone and fueled by fine art and literature, Barney was a publisher with a chip on his shoulder when it came to limitations.  Barney’s favorite pastime involved cracking rents in the general oppression of the mid 20th Century. Barney took on an angry legal system and triumphed, resulting in a golden flow from the world of the imagination to the page.  And I firmly believe he took this expensive and consuming road out of a deep love for writing, for writers, for the potentials of human spirit.