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Liveright said, “Whom do we know in common we can talk about?”

Well, we exchanged a few names, and suddenly he said, “I have a friend down in Wall Street.” He was Lowenstein, and he was president of the New York Cotton Exchange.

I said, “I happen to know him.”

So Liveright said, “Fine, I'll check up on you.”

Horace was naive. I called up Mr. Lowenstein and said, “Horace Liveright is going to call and ask you about me, and this is what I want you to tell him.” He was a friend of mine. He knew I was an honest, decent boy. He was taking no changes, and he told Liveright just what I wanted Liveright to hear--that I'd be perfect for the publishing business. So when I came to see Liveright the next day, I had made my mind up and Liveright said, “You sound great. What Lowenstein said about you was very impressive.”

I said, “Well, I hope it was because I told him just what to say.”

Liveright said, “Wasn't I a fool to tell you I was going to call him?”

We both laughed. We started right in. And I became sort of a protege of Horace's. The reason for that was that Horace always needed an audience. He was the greatest showoff in the world. And suddenly here was a young man who thought everything he did was glamorous and exciting. So he would show off for little me because I was a perfect stooge for him. Things would sort of bounce off on me. And starting