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Just that she was an imposing woman, but, as I say, she looked like a cadaver. I'd never seen a woman look so frail. When she came in, you felt that she couldn't stand up. She was very old of course and very near death and a rather imperious woman--very aristocratic.

Did you ever discuss Africa with her?

No. She didn't talk English well at all. Bob Haas spoke pretty good French and he took care of her. He was the contact for Isak Dinesen. I never became intimate with her. I was afraid of her. I was afraid she'd fall apart. Beloved Friend by Catherine Drinker Bowen was another of Bob Haas‘favorite projects. It was a story of Tchaikovsky and Madam von Meck--the famous romance between them. Actually, they never met! It was all done by corresponding. That's why the book is called Beloved Friend, because the letters always started “Beloved Friend.” And indeed she was a beloved friend. She supported him for years.

Well, when this book was planned, Bob Haas engineered the whole thing.

Was this under your auspices?

Yes. This was when he was with Random House. But this was Bob's project and he persuaded Catherine Drinker Bowen to do it. She was a Little Brown author, but she got