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Palm
Springs Confidential:
In March, we’ll ship copies of Palm Springs Confidential
by Howard Johns. This large (8 1/2 x 11, 320 pages) volume
was designed by Jeff Nordstadt and will retail for $35. Its
pages overflow with never-before-told stories of this celebrity
paradise, illustrated with hundreds of rare photographs of
the stars at work and play.
That
CIA Agent…
Recently, there was a national scandal when it was reported
that someone within the White House, in clear violation of
federal law, had leaked the identity of a CIA agent who was
the wife of a prominent diplomat. That diplomat happened to
be a critic of the Bush Administration.
The
law that could put a newspaper reporter in prison for a year
for publicly identifying an intelligence agent was originally
referred to as the Stuart-Agee bill.
Yes,
yours truly helped create a need for such a law in the eyes
of those in government who want the public to have as little
access to information as possible.
Dirty Work
In 1978, my company published a large volume called Dirty
Work – compiled by Louis Wolf with an introduction by
former CIA agent Philip Agee. It named 850 Central Intelligence
operatives in Western Europe.
I
announced in1979 that I would publish a sequel: Dirty Work
2: The CIA in Africa.. That book would expose another 350
agents.
The
CIA responded quickly and directly.
I was approached in person, by phone and by letter (on official
CIA stationery). There were subtle threats. There were appeals
to my patriotism. There were suggestions of “a deal.”
I pointed out that I was against secret police in all countries
and under all systems – whether communist, fascist or
capitalist.
The CIA had choreographed the cold-blooded murder of Che Guevara
in Bolivia in 1967.
I mentioned this. The spokesman dealing with me denied it.
I hung up the phone and published the book.
A short time later, the bill was quietly introduced in Congess
by CIA flunkies in both the Senate and the House. There was
almost no protest by the American press even as it faced further
encroachments on its First Amendment right to report.
Carole says sometimes she thinks Woody Allen’s Zelig
was fashioned on me!
Cuba
Revisited:
Our friend, Arlene Jacobs, recently visited Cuba for a week.
She went with a companion as part of a study group. It was
her first visit to the island, and she loved it – as
have several others I know who’ve been visiting Havana
during the past year purely for pleasure. (Include among these
the famous Playboy Playmate of the Year, Marilyn Cole Lownes
– the first British lady to wear that crown).
More serious was the visit of Irv Wolfe. He was part of the
Reverend L. Walker’s 14th caravan. This one was dedicated
to the senior citizens of the island. In keeping with its
theme, this caravan carried wheelchairs, geriatric medicines
and other items especially useful to older citizens.
For 500 years, Cuba was a Spanish colony. For nearly 60 years,
it was an American quasi-colony with most of its wealth going
to the United States. Today, it is a Third World country.
Yet all its citizens enjoy free medical coverage, and 85 percent
of the people own their homes. Of those who pay rent, none
pay more than 10 percent of their incomes. That fact must
confound people I know in New York who are spending 60 percent
to 70 percent of their after-tax income on rent, paying $3,000
and $4,000 a month for apartments that once rented for $300
and $400.
The George Bush kakistocracy* has made it more difficult to
travel to Cuba, but I doubt that this will discourage those
who really want to visit. Today, tourism in Cuba is at an
all-time high. *(the word means government or rule by the
worst.)
Scientology
Racket:
Scientologists
just don’t seem to get along with each other. The power-thirsty,
money-hungry gang in the church’s Los Angeles hierarchy
recently fired the bosses of the “church” in the
Netherlands.
Looking
In A Mirror:
¶¶¶
The Cornell Alumni Magazine, in writing about the death of
Eleanor Green at age 100, describes me as “her best friend,
a New York publisher who is about 70.” And I thought
I was 23!
¶¶¶
In a website interview (www.rose-ettastone.com), I was described
as “provocative” and “controversial.”
A few days later, in an item in her Boldface Names gossip
column in The New York Times, Joyce Wadler described me as
“our pal Lyle Stuart, the publisher of Barricade Books.
We almost called him bad boy publisher Lyle Stuart.’’”
¶¶¶
Carole and I had Dinner in Albany with Barbara and Larry Jones,
who heads the Institute for Humanist Studies. He was off to
India for three weeks. Our other guests, Mike and Roberta
Armstrong, were on their way to Guatemala. Carole and I felt
like stuck-in-the-muds.
Unforgettable
Scenes:
John Hammond Jr. has been described as a giant in music and
civil rights. He discovered Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman,
Bob Dylan, Sarah Vaughn, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen.
The scene was the elevator of the skyscraper that then housed
Random House. Tony Schulte, its executive vice president and
I had were riding together in a down car. The elevator stopped,
and another passenger entered. I recognized John Hammond Jr.
Tony pushed me aside. “Mr. Hammond,” he said, “I’m
Tony Schulte. I’m with Random House. We published your
book.”
Hammond nodded cordially.
Almost reluctantly, Tony added, “This is Lyle Stuart.”
Hammond suddenly sprang to life. “Lyle Stuart?”
Literally brushing Tony aside so he could face me, he exclaimed,
“Why did you discontinue The Independent? I loved that
paper! I looked forward to every issue!”
I wish I had a photograph of the shocked look on Tony Shulte’s
face.
An
Explanation:
If this issue of Hot News contains even more of the “I”
“I” “I” approach than is usual in these
pages, don’t blame it all on pure ego. Credit at least
some of it to the limitations imposed by the events described
below.
Weight
Reduction:
Before
my adventure in Orlando, I was going through some old papers
and came upon this caricature of me drawn while I was in an
Air Corps hospital awaiting discharge from the service.
It
reminded me that I’d once been thin and could become
thin again.
I
lost 20 pounds in the next eight weeks. Then came the accident,
and I lost another 20 pounds.
Applause
for my brother:
Last month I spoke about my brother, Don W. Stuart. I published
a selection of his fun with words and their sometimes deceptive
meanings.
Hot News goes to a limited list in Britain where a handful
of media and book publishing people like Ernest Hecht and
Bob Tanner are recipients.
On
this limited list is our cousin, Philip Jones. Philip is the
producer of the Jeremy Vine show, which, I believe, has the
largest listening audience of any BBC radio show.
Philip
and Jeremy Vine liked Don’s creations so much that devoted
an entire show to reading and discussing them.
The
Professions:
You’ve heard of a pride of lions, and a gaggle of geese.
My brother sent me a list he’d created of more than 100
original groups of professions.
My plan to publish the entire list was altered by the event
described below – but here is a sample:
A rash of dermatologists A suit of lawyers
A brace of orthodontists A slew of murderers
An arrangement of florists A hive of allergists
A bundle of bank robbers A trace of detectives
A clatter of busboys A jiggle of strippers
A
shock of electricians
The
Accident:
It started innocently enough. To quote from the first line
of my poem with which I ended last month’s Hot News:
“Much
is in living that is circumstance”
My brother went into the hospital for four days to undergo
surgery for bladder cancer. He needed someone to drive him
the 80 miles from the hospital in Orlando, Florida, to his
new home in The Villages.
His three children were otherwise occupied so I volunteered
to fly to Orlando and drive him home.
I did and it worked out fine.
2.
That night, he describes as “the worst night of my life.”
He couldn’t sleep. It seems that a blood clot had prevented
him from urinating.
The next morning, even as he was waiting for a return call
from his surgeon, I told him to get into the car because it
was obvious we’d have to drive to Orlando for relief.
He insisted on driving, and because he drives at twice my
cautious speed and was suffering so much, I let him.
A few minutes after we arrived at his surgeon’s office,
his problem was relieved and he felt wonderful.
I started to get into the driver’s seat but he said,
“Let me drive. It’s no strain and I feel good. Anyway,
I want to drive back on a different route.”
I couldn’t argue with the latter so I let him drive.
3.
A few minutes later, we were on the highway, and he set the
cruise control at 75 miles an hour.
I was on my cell phone talking with my daughter, Sandra Lee,
who lives in Naberth, Pennsylvania.
“I’m
tired,” my brother remarked. “Let’s stop at
the next chance and switch.”
“Fine,”
I said.
I looked at the floorboard and suddenly felt a huge bounce.
What happened next was pieced together by a state trooper.
4.
My brother closed his eyes. We came to a curve, and the car
went straight across the road smashing into a fence and tearing
the front bumper from the car. The car spun around, went across
the road and into a rut-filled field.
I screamed at my brother, “Don! Wake up! Put your foot
on the brake! Put your foot on the brake!”
His eyes not quite open, he gunned the accelerator.
5.
There is a lake, protected by the state of Florida, which
contains hundreds of alligators. It is surrounded by a canal,
which keeps the alligators in and the public out. There is
a narrow road across the canal and somehow our car went over
this and headed for the lake.
There
is a 30-yard-long chain fence and nothing else to separate
the alligators from the canal.
In
my mind’s eye, I have relived the next fifteen second
dozens of times as a
horror
story.
Our car, now going at 85 miles an hour, was about to plunge
into the alligator-infested lake. The chain fence caught it
by its back wheels.
Which is why I happen to be alive today, writing this.
6.
When the car smashed into the divider, my cell phone fell
to the floor. My daughter heard a crash and then moaning.
She called the Florida highway patrol and helped them determine
where to send an ambulance.
A highway patrolman who’d observed the whole thing pointed
out that had the car plunged into the lake, there would have
been no way to rescue us. Even if, in our semiconscious state,
we’d been able to get out of the car.
I’d never imagined my end as an appetizer for alligators.
7.
I was rushed to Health Central Hospital where, after hours
of intense suffering, I was told there was nothing broken
and I could go home.
I won’t bore you, dear reader, with the medical details
except to say that every time I tried to sit up during the
next two weeks gave new meaning to the words “excruciating
pain”.
The emergency room doctor was totally wrong, of course.
I’d suffered two fractures. My left femur, already broken
three times before, was fractured again. It was only the metal
already there that kept my left leg from splintering.
I
had a compression fracture of the L-1 spinal disc.
8.
In praise of people with talent: In Phyllis Popper, we have
the smartest and most dependable insurance agent around since
her husband, Arthur Milton, retired. Our
insurance
kicked immediately and with her capable assistance, we were
provided with e best surgeons and physicians, home nursing
assistance, hospital care, etc.
9.
I’m told it will be another six to eight weeks before
the fractures heal and I can come off 24-hour painkillers.
I’ll have to spend most of this time on my back in bed.
I can sit up only with the aid of a tight abdominal brace.
10.
I tried to keep news of the accident quiet because as much
as I appreciate phone calls, cards, letters and gifts, I’m
not up to receiving visitors – and I don’t want
to hurt feelings.
Barricade Books has the strongest list of current and upcoming
books in its history. In order to properly support and promote
several of these titles, I was about to seek several hundred
thousand dollars from an investor.
All of this will have to wait.
End
Quotes:
Page 6 in the New York Post occasionally publishes what it
calls “End quotes.” Since I don’t have much
appetite for gossip columns these days, I have to thank Joy
Gross of Rhinebeck, New York, for sending me a clipping of
an end quote quoting me:
“I
believe in protecting animals, protecting children, that
there
is no life after death, that there is no god, no gods,
and
that the First Amendment is the one thing that sets us
aside
and above the other tribes of the world.”
–publisher
Lyle Stuart.
My own choice for an end quote for this Hot News is the comment
by the guitarist Tuck Andres sof Tuck and Patti:
“If
you lower your expectations to zero, life becomes a series
of happy surprises.”
O.K.
Surprise me. Is anybody out there interested in investing
in a book publishing company?
Until
next time ---
Lyle
Stuart
lyle@barricadebooks.com
June
2003 Hot News
August
2003 Hot News
September
2003 Hot News
October
2003 Hot News
November 2004 Hot News
January
2004 Hot News
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