British magazine publisher Felix Dennis, part of celebrated obscenity trial, dies at 67

LONDON – Publisher Felix Dennis, who co-edited 1960s underground magazine Oz and went on to build a magazine empire, has died. He was 67 and had cancer.

His office said Monday that Dennis died at his home in Dorsington, central England, a day earlier.

An enthusiastic participant in the 1960s counterculture, Dennis came to prominence as a defendant in the 1971 trial of Oz for “conspiracy to corrupt public morals.”

Dennis and his co-accused were defended by lawyer and novelist John Mortimer and eventually acquitted on appeal.

He went on to run Dennis Publishing, which produced titles including men’s magazine Maxim and news digest The Week.

Dennis, who once claimed to have spent $100 million on “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” became a prolific poet in later life.