America's 'gutsiest' publisher dies

FORT LEE, N.J., June 28 (UPI) -- Lyle Stuart, who released books no other publisher would touch, including "The Anarchist Cookbook" and "Poor Little Rich Girl" died in Fort Lee, N.J. at 83.

Lyle Stuart Inc. was launched in 1956 with $8,000. Stuart started the trend of sex-topic books with the popular "The Sensuous Woman." His firm also published the autobiography of Linda Lovelace, the porn star, titled "Ordeal," the Los Angeles Times reported.

"The Anarchist Cookbook," published in 1970, provided instructions on how to make a bomb. "You know, it tells you how to make Molotov cocktails and blow up police stations," Stuart said.

Stuart told the Washington Post, "I've always tested the limits of the 1st Amendment."

A 1985 Chicago Tribune story said Stuart was, "either America's most courageous publisher or its most crassly exploitive."

Stuart was born Lionel Simon in New York City on Aug. 11, 1922. He didn't finish high school, but became a newspaper reporter and then worked for Variety. In 1952, he was business manager for MAD magazine.

Stuart's first wife, Mary Louise, died of cancer in 1969. He is survived by his second wife, Carole; a son, Rory; a daughter, Sandra Lee Stuart; a stepdaughter, Jennifer Kern and three grandchildren.