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elephant. About six months later somebody else published that book and it was picked by the Book-of-the Month Club. Mrs. Knopf was on the phone at once, innocence itself: “Dear Bennett, wasn't that book the Book-of-the-Month Club just picked--the one you were reading and grumbling over at my house?" I said, “You know damn well it was. I knew I'd hear from you about this.” She giggled happily. It was that kind of a relationship. We were jealous of each other but also proud of each other.

I had a similar relationship with Harold Guinzburg at Viking Press. We were great friends but terribly jealous of each other.

You told a little bit of it.

No. That's Tom.

It's very odd, what our one little group of close friends did in the publishing business. Blanche and Alfred Knopf, Harold Guinzburg and Ben Huebsch at Viking, Dick Simon and Max Schuster at Simon and Schuster, and Donald and I were personal friends long before any of us got into publishing. The Knopfs predate us in the publishing business and so did Huebsch. Harold Guinzburg and Donald and I and Max and Dick all went to school together. We knew each other in college. So our rivalry was friendly but intense. We were terribly jealous of each other, but went forging forward together as sort of a little army to the annoyance of the old guard who resented our intrusion very much, indeed.