Karl Hess, a libertarian author, activist, and publicist, was a popular libertarian speaker and movement personality in the late 1960s through his death in 1994. He edited the Libertarian Party's official newspaper, LP News, from 1986 to 1989, and he was the father of Karl Hess, Jr., who writes libertarian works on property rights and the environment.

Hess began his career as a reporter for the Washington Star and wrote for various D.C.-area newspapers in the early 1940s. He became an editor of various magazines through the 1940s and early 1950s, including Aviation News, Pathfinder (where he was religion editor), and Newsweek (where he was press editor). His first consuming political interest was anticommunism, which he pursued avidly while at Newsweek. He lost his job there ...