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as vice-president, of course, was ridiculous, but here I was. Later I realized that people up there resented me coming in there as vice-president. They knew why. They knew I'd loaned Liveright some money.

At that time in the Liveright office, Dick was still there. He was going to break me in. He was going to leave in about a month. One of the editorial readers there was Mrs. George Kaufman--Beatrice Kaufman. She was up on the top floor reading manuscripts. The manufacturing man was named Manuel Komroff; he became quite a well-known author later on. One of the assistants downstairs was a girl named Lillian Hellman. What a group of people! Sitting at a desk next to me was a boy named Ted Weeks, who became editor of the Atlantic Monthly. One of Liveright's assistants was Julian Messner, who went out and became a publisher by himself. And here was Dick Simon.

Now, the list that Liveright was publishing then was pretty impressive. He'd just had a big, big year. The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Van Loon. So Van Loon was hanging around the office. Upstream by Ludwig Lewisohn. Ludwig Lewisohn also hung around the office. Tramping on Life by Harry Kemp--a tramp, a wonderfully interesting character. Another of Liveright's intimates was Mr. Herbert Bayard Swope, who was then the young editor of the New York World. Dorothy Parker was another close personal friend. Eugene O'Neill, just beginning to be famous in playwrighting, was also part of the ensemble.