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go off on vacation?" I said, “You're right ‘I am.‘I'll be away eleven days.” He said, “When you come back, my offer may be withdrawn.” I said, “I've already turned down your offer. My proposition stands. When I come back, I will still make the deal at sixty-two one-hundredths.” I said, “You don't have to renew any offer at all. I quite understand. You have no obligation.”

So I went home. I felt that I had all of the aces. I knew that they wanted us very badly. I knew that two onehundredths was not going to keep RCA from closing the deal. It meant little to them. It meant a very great deal to us. Donald was pretty miffed at me. He was all set for the sale by this time and so were our top editors. I knew we'd get exactly what we had demanded when one of the Lehman Bros. bankers called me up from White Sulphur Springs to tell me how unreasonable I was. He had been kept aware of every step in the negotiations. They wanted us!

The next day we did fly out to Palm Springs with Mia for ten days. The minute that I came back our negotiating was resumed, and the General, rather huffily, said, “Well, we're not going to argue with you over that two one-hundredths of a share.” So the deal was made for sixty-two one-hundredths of a share of RCA for one of Random House, which brought the value of Random House at the time the deal was made to about fortyfour million dollars. That's what we sold Random House for-- a business that we started on a shoestring. That was quite something for a book publishing business!