Lyle Stuart

Lyle Stuart (born Lionel Simon; August 11, 1922 – June 24, 2006) was an American author and independent publisher of controversial books.

In 1956, with $8,000 of the money he collected from libel actions against Walter Winchell, Confidential, ABC-TV, and Editor & Publisher, he began his publishing company, Lyle Stuart, Inc., of which, as noted below, Kensington Books subsequently acquired ownership.

Lyle Stuart, Inc. The publishing firm for which Stuart was best known, Lyle Stuart, Inc., was founded in 1955 with the proceeds of a lawsuit settlement. In 1965, in partnership with Loujon Press, Stuart published Charles Bukowski's second important poetry collection, Crucifix in a Deathhand, though the firm was better known for publishing books such as The Sensuous Woman and Naked Came the Stranger.

In the early 1980s, Lyle Stuart Inc. made a deal with UK publishers Target Books/W H Allen for US distribution of the paperback novelizations of the TV series Doctor Who, coinciding with the increasing popularity of the show on US public broadcasting.

The company was sold in 1988 to developer Steven Schragis, who started Carol Publishing. In 2000, Carol Publishing filed for bankruptcy and was itself sold to the Kensington Publishing Corporation.

Barricade Books In 1997, Stuart's publishing house Barricade Books reissued The Turner Diaries, a novel thought to have been the inspiration behind Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Murrah building. He was a strong advocate of freedom of the press, and believed it was important for people to be able to read and make up their own minds. (In the introduction he wrote to his reissue of The Turner Diaries, he made clear how strongly he opposed the viewpoint expressed in the book.)

Also in the 1990s, casino mogul Steve Wynn sued Stuart over catalog copy. The copy on Running Scared, a biography of Wynn, made reference to a New Scotland Yard report that tied the Las Vegas tycoon to the Genovese crime family. (The book refuted some of the report's findings.) Stuart lost the libel case and was ordered to pay three million dollars in defamation, forcing him into bankruptcy. This judgment was overturned on appeal by the Nevada Supreme Court in 2001 and sent back for a new trial, which Wynn chose not to pursue.

Personal life Stuart was born in Manhattan on August 11, 1922. Stuart's first wife, Mary Louise Stuart, died in 1969. They are the parents of jazz guitarist Rory Stuart. Later Stuart married Carole Livingston Stuart in 1982 and they were married until his death.

Stuart, especially in his last years, was a resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Selected works, as author or publisher God Wears a Bow Tie (1950) a novel written by Lyle Stuart Inside Western Union (1950) The Secret Life of Walter Winchell (1953) Inside The FBI (1967) The Rich and the Super-Rich (1968) Naked Came the Stranger (1969) The Sensuous Woman (1969) The Anarchist Cookbook (1970) The Sensuous Man (1971) The MAD World of William M. Gaines (1972), Library of Congress Card No. 72–9178 Jackie Oh! (1978) Casino Gambling for the Winner (1978), The Prostitute Murders: The People Vs. Richard Cottingham (1983) Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain (1984) L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman? (1987) Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews (1987) Black Robes, White Justice (1987), Winning at Casino Gambling (1994), Lyle Stuart on Baccarat (1997),