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You had spent a lot of money on it.

Really not a great deal, but it had been put in the catalogue and salesmen had sold it as a Random House publi- cation.

You had it in galleys?

No, it had not been set up yet. The manuscript had been corrected. It was about to go to press.

I was so outraged. I said, “Get him out of here. I don't want to see him anymore. You know perfectly well that this book has been under contract for months. He has an advance from us on this book--a considerable one.” Lazar said, “Oh, he'll give you back the advance immediately.” This was at least two years after our deal had been made--to Irwin's complete satisfaction at the time. I said, “That's very big of him to give back the advance. We have a contract. We could publish the damn thing and tell him to go to hell, but no, we'll send you the manuscript back this afternoon. You send us the check for the advance, and let's forget about Irwin Shaw.”

It was a bad ending to a nice story because Irwin, as I say, is one of the most enchanting men. When he comes into a party, you can hear that laugh and things pick up all around him. He's gotten fat, but he was a fine athlete in his day--a great, big, husky man; and the girls still fall for him in droves.