Magazine publisher who was an editor on 1960s counter-culture title Oz dies after battle with cancer

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Felix Dennis, the flamboyant magazine publisher, poet and entrepreneur who was one of the editors of 1960s counter-culture title Oz, has died aged 67. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2012.

Dennis’s family announced on Monday that he had died peacefully the previous day at home “surrounded by his loved ones”.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Felix Dennis passed away yesterday surrounded by his loved ones. After a long and painful battle with cancer, Felix died peacefully at his home in Dorsington, aged 67,” his family said in a statement.

“Felix was a publishing legend, famed for his maverick and entrepreneurial style and, more lately, a successful and much-loved poet. He will be greatly missed.

“Thank you to the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Felix, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.”

His involvement with Oz, the counter culture magazine launched in 1967 and of which he became co-editor, led to him being one of the “Oz three” defendants eventually found not guilty following the 1971 Old Bailey obscenity trial about the title’s content.

He went on to found Dennis Publishing in 1973, with one of the company’s first successful titles being Kung-Fu Monthly. From the late 1970s Dennis latched on to the boom in consumer technology in the UK and US with magazines including PC World, Computer Shopper and MacUser.

In the past two decades Dennis Publishing’s most successful titles have included men’s magazine Maxim and weekly current affairs digest The Week.

Dennis’s personal wealth largely derives from co-founding US computer mail order company MicroWarehouse, which floated on Nasdaq in 1992 and was later sold to a private equity group.

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