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How did you get hold of him?

Well, we got all of these young English poets. On one trip over, I got Auden, Spender, Lewis and...

Did you have letters of introduction to them?

Yes. They were a group. They were a group like a New York Review group. You got one, you got them all.

Did you feel privileged to get them? I mean, that's quite a coup.

You bet! It didn't mean anything financially. The first ones that we published, Spender and Lewis and Auden-- their first volumes--I don't think that any one of them broke even; but they were a distinguished lot. Random House was on a fine course in those days!

People think of Random House today as a publisher of best-seller books and the big books.

Yes.

They don't think of this, and this is a part of all the publishing that has gone on. I was just trying to get this in.