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One of the men I met that I particularly liked was named Mr. Wilson, manager of one of the most famous bookstores in the world called Bumpus, on Oxford Street in London.

Is it still there or not?

It's been taken over. It's part of a chain like everything else is now. Bumpus was then the great headquarters for press books in England. When I saw the stock they had there my mouth watered. I immediately wanted to buy the whole Nonesuch stock he had, which he refused to sell me, but he did sell me a lot. We went out to dinner that night, and I was talking about doing some limited editions of my own. And Wilson said, “Well, your business is these reprints, the Modern Library. Why do you want to go into limited editions?”

I said, “I love them, and look what Francis Meynell has done with them.”

And Wilson said, “Let me give you some advice, Bennett. Never go into the other fellow's business. I've seen many people go bankrupt going into the other fellow's business. Because Mr. A has made a success of something does not mean that Mr. B can do the same thing when he hasn't got the experience and built up his business step by step. You've done very well with reprints. You stay in your reprint business. Distribute these books; you've done it brilliantly. Don't try doing them yourself!”