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us bring out a trade edition of Moby Dick as illustrated by Rockwell Kent. We were so excited about this that we forgot to put Herman Melville's name on the cover, so our edition of Moby Dick, to the vast amusement of everybody (the New Yorker spotted it), said only on the cover: “Moby Dick, illustrated by Rockwell Kent.”

As a result of that book another big door opened for us because the Book of the Month Club chose it. The Book of the Month Club was just getting underway at this time. I had never met Harry Scherman or his partner, Robert Haas. They day they called us up to tell us it was a selection, we weren't very excited--we just closed the office and gave everybody the rest of the day off. It was about 11 in the morning and we said, “Go home. This is a holiday.”

Now, the result of this was important for everybody concerned. At that time the Book of the Month Club was quite young and small, and the guarantee for a selection was $5,000. It's now up to about $100,000. But then the guarantee for a choice was $5,000. So we got a check for $5,000 for this first trade book we were doing, and we were delighted.

About a week later the Book of the Month Club met in executive session, and we got a letter from this unknown man, Mr. Harry Scherman, telling us that they had decided to raise their guarantee--to double it from $5,000 to $10,000. And since they felt that our book had only been selected a week before, they didn't think we should be short changed, so they were enclosing a check for an additional $5,000. Well, Donald