Lyle Munson


Lyle Hugh Munson was an intelligence agent and then, later, a book publisher and distributor under the corporate name Bookmailer, Inc.. Based in the New York area, his company was known particularly for offering anti-communist works, and has been described as having been the "leading publisher of antisemitic and hate literature".
Robert W. Welch Jr., the head of the John Birch Society, considered him a "good friend". Munson's advice to Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises that the author threaten Yale University Press with taking Human Action to another publisher due to delays caused the Press to rush out their flawed second edition.

Intelligence

Munson worked for the OSS starting in 1940, and in the CIA's psychological warfare division, and in 1949 testified before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.

Bookmailer

During the 29 years of its existence, Bookmailer published around fifty books on its own, in addition to distributing books published by small publishers. They were based in New York City, changing offices after an April 18, 1961 burglary. In 1964, they moved to Linden, New Jersey. The company was 20% owned by P. C. Beezley. Sales circa 1960 were about 200,000 volumes per year, and grew to around 2 million in 1961 off of a wave of interest in anti-communist material. Employees included Herbert Romerstein, later director of the Reagan administration's Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation.
According to Russell Kirk, Bookmailer advertising was turned down by conservative journal Modern Age because his advertising agent had a Jewish name.

Books published

Munson and his wife, Anne, moved from New Jersey to Mattoon, Illinois less than a year before his death. After he passed, Anne started her own by-mail bookselling operation, Munson Books.