Lyle Stuart Dies at 83

[zengrifter]

Among his publishing credits - Playing BJ As A Business -and- The Anarchist Cookbook. zg

------------

Lyle Stuart Dies at 83

by Staff, PW Daily -- 6/26/2006

Maverick publisher Lyle Stuart, who started his first publishing company in 1956 with the proceeds from a libel lawsuit he won against Walter Winchell, died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 83. Although best known for publishing controversial works, Lyle Stuart Inc. also published a string of titles that sold extremely well, including Kitty Kelley's first book, Jackie Oh!. Other titles that helped to finance Stuart's more daring books included The Rich and Super-Rich, Where Did I Come From? and The Sensuous Woman.

Stuart drew the most attention, however, for publishing such controversial titles as The Anarchist Cookbook, Fidel Castro's History Will Absolve Me, Naked Came the Stranger, and, in 1996, The Turner Diaries. "I'm wildly revolutionary," Turner told PW in a 1978 interview. "Politically apolitical, but wildly revolutionary."

Stuart sold his company in 1990, but kept the rights to Anarchist, which he used to start Barricade Books. Stuart's love of gambling got Barricade into trouble when Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn filed a lawsuit, charging that the catalogue copy of Barricade's Running Scared libeled him. An initial victory by Wynn, which carried a $3.2 million judgment, forced Barricade into bankruptcy, but the ruling was eventually reversed. At the time of Stuart's death, Barricade was publishing about 10 books a year (as well as his Hot News newsletter) from offices in Fort Lee, N.J.

xxx