Monday, Feb. 2, 1998 | 10:48 a.m.
NEW YORK - One would think, having recently lost $3 million in a libel judgment, a fellow would be gloomy. But that is not the case with publisher Lyle Stuart.
He darts around his scruffy little downtown office (technically, because Stuart has declared bankruptcy, the creditors' scruffy little downtown office) in high spirits, arriving with a box of doughnuts for a photographer and a reporter. (He has always been a master at giving members of the press exactly what they want.) He jokes about the books that have got him in trouble over the years and the one that has him in trouble now, "Running Scared: The Life and Treacherous Times of Las Vegas Casino King Steve Wynn."
It has been, as so often happens with Stuart, a simultaneously hilarious and harrowing fight. Wynn won the libel case against Stuart's company, Barricade Books, in August, then got a court order freezing the inventory, putting Stuart out of business.
Stuart countered by declaring bankruptcy, which, under law, permits him to do business as usual.
Which makes one wonder: since Stuart sold his previous publishing company, Lyle Stuart, for $12 million nine years ago, how can he be bankrupt?
A big grin.
"I'm a very generous guy," Stuart says. "I gave a million dollars to my wife, I gave five or six hundred thousand dollars to my employees. I spent my money rather cavalierly. In plain language, I don't give" - and here he speaks plainly - "about money. That being the case, Steve Wynn has hit me in my least vulnerable spot."
It is not easy to have a linear conversation with Lyle Stuart. You can ask him a question and get a direct answer once in a while, but, more often, you are walking into a conversational labyrinth where stories open into more stories and you are finally so dizzy you have forgotten where you came in.
Why did thivious publishing company, Lyle Stuart, for $12 million nine years ago, how can he be bankrupt?
A big grin.
"I'm a very generous guy," Stuart says. "I gave a million dollars to my wife, I gave five or six hundred thousand dollars to my employees. I spent my money rather cavalierly. In plain language, I don't give" - and here he speaks plainly - "about money. That being the case, Steve Wynn has hit me in my least vulnerable spot."
It is not easy to have a linear conversation with Lyle Stuart. You can ask him a question and get a direct answer once in a while, but, more often, you are walking into a conversational labyrinth where stories open into more stories and you are finally so dizzy you have forgotten where you came in.
Why did this trouble hound, who presents himself as fearless, change his last name from Simon? In view of the Oklahoma City bombing does he have any regrets about publishing one of his more notorious books, the "Anarchist Cookbook," which includes formulas for building bombs? He's 75 and lost his first wife to cancer and has been battling all his life. Isn't he tired of it?
He'll tell you, eventually, but meanwhile there are the war stories, or life stories, which for Stuart may be the same thing: taking the 36-member staff of Lyle Stuart Publishing to Europe in the big money days of the '70s and spending one day at the Frankfurt Book Fair to make it legit; a lifetime of gambling, during which he once lost $40,000 in a single hand.
The linear tale: Lionel Simon is raised in Brooklyn. His father commits suicide when he is 6. He drops out of high school and joins the Merchant Marine. The anti-Semitism he encounters there makes him change his name. He marries at 22, has a family and creates a monthly tabloid called The Independent. When Stuart tangles with columnist Walter Winchell and wins his own libel suit, he begins Lyle Stuart Publishing. He publishes Fidel Castro's "History Will Absolve Me" and "The Sensuous Woman" and becomes a multimillionaire. After the death of his wife, at 47, he marries his longtime secretary, Carole Livingston. In 1990, after selling Lyle Stuart Publishing, they begin Barricade Books.
Why does Mrs. Stuart stay with this man? He throws away money.
"Yeah, but not mine," says Mrs. Stuart, 56, who owns 50 percent of Barricade. "Nothing Lyle has ever done has jeopardized our lifestyle or me. He never asked me for money to gamble. He's difficult, but he's the most interesting man I know."
The libel ruling against Stuart - now on appeal with support from The New York Times and other news organizations - has affected business. Barricade has been forced to cut its book list in half and reduce its staff to three from nine. Still, the Stuarts, who own a co-op apartment in Fort Lee, N.J., live well.
"Carole is a wealthy lady," Stuart says. "She took me on a cruise; she's taking me to London. So, it's good to be generous to your wife."
As for his publishing life, he regrets nothing.
Not even the "Anarchist Cookbook"?
"Actually, it was The Turner Diaries, that we also published, that the FBI said was the blueprint for Oklahoma City," Stuart says. "I make no bones about it. The guy who wrote it is a Nazi. For a long time, you could only get the book through militia or hate groups. I'm a First Amendment fanatic. I feel the American people should have a right to read anything. I bought it after the bombing, with the condition I could write the introduction - a very critical introduction."
"It was the most bizarre, scary novel," Mrs. Stuart said. "No sane person would take it seriously."
But what about the people who are not sane?
Stuart has a final story.
"Did you know, Hitler did not allow the unexpurgated edition of "Mein Kampf" to be published in America? The only edition, published in 1939, was totally censored. The stuff about the Jews was watered down. A friend of ours is alive today only because his mother could read German. They lived in Holland, they were Jewish, she read "Mein Kampf" in the original and said, 'We're leaving.' So, you take risks."
And no, he is not at all tired of the fights. He loves them.
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