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fellow. His wife Judy is a niece of Dick Rodgers, an old, close friend of mine. We did very well with The Great Impostor. It was a big hit and made a big movie too. Then Bob Crighton, still fascinated by this fraudulent fellow he had written about, wanted to do a sequel. We all begged him not to because we said he had told the story and another book on the subject didn't have a chance, but he refused to be convinced. We published the book with the expected results. It didn't do well. We didn't bother too much about it because we knew that it wouldn't sell and, when you know that, you don't over-advertise. The losses were very minor. But while I was away somewhere on a vacation, Judy, Bob Crighton's wife, came to Donald and said that he was embarrassed by the fact that he had pushed this book onto us and that he felt that everybody at Random House, even if they didn't say, would have a grudge against him. He thought that for his next book he'd be better off under different auspices. We had an option on his next book, but Donald didn't even point this out. Characteristically generous, he said, “If that's the way you feel, go ahead.” I think that he should have said, “Let's see the next manuscript anyhow.” But he didn't.

The next book turned out to be The Secret of Santa Vittoria, a huge success. I've always been a little disgruntled by this because, in other words, we were penalized because we did what he wanted us to! But everything ends happily because now that these three people are coming over