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wonderful fellow. I loved Dick. But this was a terrible fault. The most self-centered man that I've ever met.

We'd had previous experience with Dick on this. I used to go away with Harold and Alice Guinzburg on vacation. I told you this--about going to Egypt with them. But we went to Nassau together on a couple of vacations. In those days it wasn't so easy to get to Nassau as it is now. You can fly there in about an hour and a half in a jet. In those days you had to take the train down to Miami, which was two nights and a day, and then take an overnight flying boat, which landed and took off in the water, over to Nassau.

Dick published a book called The Story of Geography by Hendrik Willem Van Loon. He had gotten Van Loon when the old Liveright firm foundered just as we'd gotten O'Neill and Jeffers. Harold Guinzburg at this time was the head of the Literary Guild, which was just beginning as a serious competitor to the Book-of-the-Month Club; and the Literary Guild, in the person of Harold Guinzburg, called up Dick Simon and said, “We'd like The Story of Geography for the Literary Guild.” Dick was quite happy to give it to him and they made the deal over the phone. Two days later the Book- of-the-Month Club called up and said that they had decided to take The Story of Geography by Hendrik Willem Van Loon. So Dick promptly sold it to the Book-of-the-Month Club, which then meant about four times a sale to the Guild.

Dick called up Harold and said, “I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to give you The Story of Geography.”