Barney Rosset, 89

MANHATTAN - Barney Rosset, the publisher of Grove Press who fought legal battles to print uncensored versions of "Tropic of Cancer" and "Lady Chatterly's Lover," has died at 89.

Rosset fought a 3-year legal battle to publish Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer," which the U.S. Supreme Court found in 1964 to have "redeeming social value" and so is not obscene. More than 20 states had banned the book.

Rosset published a stellar list of authors, including Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ioneco, Harold Pinter, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Octavio Paz and Malcolm X.

He bought Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" in 1954 for a $150 advance against 2.5 percent royalties, and sold more than 1 million copies at $1.

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