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made him the most money! He had on his list both Irving Wallace and Harold Robbins, two of the great sellers today. He says in all sincerity, “Two of the things that I'm happiest about is that I'm rid of those two hacks. The stuff they're writing now I wouldn't publish.” He means it, too.

He also is ashamed of some of the other books that made him a fortune. Alfred Knopf, despite all of his artistic leanings, has published some of the most successful books in the publishing business. The Prophet, by Gibran, sells between 100,000 and 150,000 copies every year. Alfred, when you mention The Prophet, merely grumbles. He also published This is My Beloved, a book of poetry by Benton, which sells year after year--though he deplores it. He published a book called Sorrel and Son by Warwick Deeping, which he screams about. It was an enormous seller during the war. He published The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico, and The Human Body by Glendenning, and more recently, Markings by Hammarskjold. Besides that, his list of great authors will stagger anybody--Willa Cather, Thomas Mann, Thomas Beer, Joe Hergesheimer, John Hersey, Camus, Sartre....

Well, you could go on.

What a back list! The minute that the Random House sales department got hold of that Knopf back list, his business was doubled in a single year. There are precious nuggets buried there. We haven't even found some of them yet. We have