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We shook hands on the deal. I was delighted. And as we went to the door he said, “By the way, what happens if a book club chooses this volume?”

He was a step ahead, wasn't he?

Oh! This was outright permission, you see--it wasn't on a royalty basis. So I said, “That's ridiculous. The Book of the Month Club won't use a volume like this.”

He said, “Well, if a book club uses it, you've got to pay me twice as much as you said you would.”

The price, I remember, was $2000 for the use of his play. The others--some of them--were $100, $200. This was up to $2000. He said, “If a book club chooses it, you've got to give me twice as much.”

I said, “This is purely academic, but all right.”

Sure enough, the Book Club did choose it, so he got $4000. He was a great businessman. You know, there's a famous story about his having a fight with somebody or other who was telling him how he couldn't give him much for the rights to a Shaw play, but he was going to make a great motion picture out of it. And Shaw said, “There's no use in our talking because you're the great artist obviously, and I m just a businessman.”

Did you continue your relationship with him?

We had our dinner date two nights later.