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It had never been a trade book, and it was very hard to get the medical book. It was considered a “dirty” book by a lot of people, although it is done in such scientific terms that anybody who thinks he will get any erotic excitement out of Havelock Ellis is quite mistaken. But Ellis‘The Dance of Life had become a big seller, and since sex was the raison d'etre for the Studies in the Psychology of Sex, I knew that if we could buy the rights to it, we would cash in. It exceeded our fondest expectations and now I wanted to meet Havelock Ellis in person. And by a great combination of circumstances I had dates with Ellis and Shaw on the same day!

One in the morning and one in the afternoon?

I had to take a train to see Havelock Ellis. He was up toward Oxford--about a 40-minute train trip, like going up to White Plains. So in the morning I went up to the country and had lunch with Ellis, came back in the afternoon and went right to George Bernard Shaw's apartment. What a day for a young publisher, hmmm?

What was Ellis like?

A very dignified, nice, charming man, with a possessive housekeeper, rather a shy person. He left no great impression on me except that he was a gentleman.