Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 614615616617618619620621622623624625626627628629630631632633634635636637638639640641642643644645646647648649650651652653654655656657658659660 of 1029

in a month than happened to our parents in a lifetime; and life has become a wildly exciting, chaotic affair. Just keeping up with actual news takes a lot of time. Then novelists insist on writing 800- and 900-page books. People haven't got time for them. They haven't got room to put them in their libraries. So it has to be a very unusual book that will catch on.

And fast-moving too.

Like The Source or Dr. Zhivago. For one reason or another, there will always be a few novels that become great best-sellers; but the bulk of fiction finds it very hard going indeed.

By contrast, take the books that are coming out on various phases of world affairs--there have been probably a hundred books on Vietnam. Most of them have sold. Of courst that is the subject that is holding people's attention today. There have been hundreds of books on the Negro problem. The sale of those is mainly to young people, and in paperback they out-sell the hardback books by a huge margin because the college boys that read them can't afford to pay $7.95 for a book or $6.95. They will pay 95¢ or $1.25.

The thing that discourages me about all of these books is that we think that we're shaping public opinion. We'll publish at Random House a book on any side. I don't believe that it is my business to convert people. I want