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Flaming Youth. That book swept the country. This was the first of a host of novels about the flappers and their free sex ways. Mr. Knopf disapproved.

Well, Sister Carrie was a bit of a...

Yes, but Horace didn't publish Sister Carrie. That had been brought out, I think, by Harper's years before. Horace had got hold of Dreiser when Dreiser was in a dry period. His books had a moderate sale, but they were not Sister Carrie. An American Tragedy came later--in 1926. That's another chapter. That played quite a part in my life, An American Tragedy, in one way and another.

I wonder if you could tell some story that would maybe describe Liveright. You gave a little bit of the story, but how did he go about publishing? The author would come in...

And Liveright would say, “We'll let you know tomorrow,” and he'd have one of us read it overnight. And we'd bring him a precis the next day.

He didn't do much reading himself?

No, he was too busy. He was out on the town entertaining authors. He believed in the personality approach. He was great at drinking in what you'd tell him about a book. He'd