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romance broke up with Sylvia, we resumed our friendship.

We published his next book, a novel called The Harder They Fall, which was a story of the prize fight racket, which Bud knows very well. Then he did, of course, The Disenchanted, which was the story of the last days of Scott Fitzgerald. It was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and a big seller. Then he wrote one of the most successful movies that has ever been made, called On the Waterfront, which made Marlon Brando a star. Later he translated it into a novel.

Bud and I have drifted apart, I'm sorry to say, but...

Do you think that if he were to write another book that you'd...?

No. We had a contract with him for his new book, but were so dissatisfied with the first hundred pages he showed us that we were more than willing to let him accept a fabulous offer from World (that's now part of the L. A. Times empire). Now, I don't know...if Bud ever does finish this book, I hope he'll have rewritten the section I read. It's been on the way now for about three or four years.

He's been very active in the Watts business, organizing committees and things to try to help this dangerous situation in California. But Bud is very hard to pin down to a desk. Saxe Commins was invaluable to Bud. I believe that the death of Saxe Commins hurt Bud's literary career because Saxe was one man who seemed able to get him to work.