“The complaint alleges that from 1955 to 1976 the eight appellants conspired to, participated in, authorized or failed to supervise certain activities in violation of several statutes and the First, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendments to the Constitution. The named acts included the opening of a counterintelligence file on Grove Press, infiltration of the company's activities, physical surveillance of its officers and employees, opening of Grove Press' mail, wiretapping, and the supplying of covert financial assistance to Grove Press' competitors. The count against the CIA charged the withholding of records relating to Grove Press in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552. The compliant seeks injunctive and declaratory relief, a writ of mandamus against the CIA and money damages from the individual defendants” (Case 608 F.2d 926.)

        Although Grove didn't win its case, what emerged as undeniable is that the CIA certainly damaged Grove's publishing operations and spied on its authors. It also appears to have supported such psyops as Valerie Solanis' S.C.U.M (Society for Cutting Up Men). Just before Solaris assassinated artist Andy Worhol in 1968, she lurked outside Grove's office will an ice pick, threatening to stab Barney Rosset. By confusing in the public mind anti-establishment sentiment with “dirty books” and “exploitation of women,” the psyops campaign worked under the legal radar to destroy Grove Press. By the early 1970s, I was being portrayed as a “dirty writer” who had exploited black women, and pirated editions of my first novel were being published as “jerk-off” pornography. My hunch is that the campaign against Grove also impacted Herb Alexander's career. Herb, like Barney Rosset, was a free thinker.

        It wasn't till three decades later that I learned Herb Alexander had died at Mount Sinai Hospital on November 23, 1988, at age 78. The New York Times carried an obituary:
        “Mr. Alexander joined Pocket Books in 1947 as an associate editor. In 1948, he became editor in chief of the paperback house, and for the next 25 years he helped shape the revolution in publishing that was fueled by the growing availability and popularity of paperback books.
        ''He was considered by his colleagues and competitors as one of the shrewdest buyers of reprint rights in the paperback business,'' Lawrence Hughes, a former colleague who is now chairman of the Hearst Trade Book Group, said yesterday. ''Under his editorship, Pocket Books maintained its position as the largest mass-market paperback publisher despite the entrance of seven other aggressive companies into the field…
        “After retiring on Jan. 1, 1974, Mr. Alexander served as a freelance editor for various companies, including Playboy Press and William Morrow & Company.”
        If Herb didn't retire till January 1974, why was I told he wasn't there when I called Pocket Books in the late sixties? Why did he stop calling me when I lived in Malibu?

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