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a few corrections. Irwin is very careless. He counts on his editor to polish things up. We always did. But when we sent it over to Dell, they published it exactly the way it was turned in.

What is your editor's name again?

Nan Talese. Her husband, Gay Talese, was a star reporter on The New York Times and is now writing a history of that great newspaper. He's under contract, I'm sorry to say, to World. When he first signed up, he didn't think that he wanted to be published by the firm that his wife worked for.

Well, you can understand that.

Gay's a very attractive man, and Nan is beautiful. They have two children.

Whenever we have an impressionable author who we think would enjoy working with her, we turn Nan loose on him. They are always absolutely delighted because she not only is an enchanting girl but is very, very smart besides.

Now it's time for the Moss Hart story.

I think that I've told you what a close friend he was.