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The only competition they had were smaller jobbers like Baker and Taylor and McClurg. Neither of them was as big then as they became later. The American News Company was the number one distributor of books among stationery stores--you know, not the book stores, but all the little miscellaneous outfits. The buyer for the American News Company was a very tough, very efficient fellow named Harold Williams. My partner, Donald Klopfer, and I knew Harold and liked him. We played golf together occasionally. And he was a great kidder. He had a dry wit. And we had done a little business with him; they had used maybe a thousand copies of Moby Dick. But at last here was a book we had for Harold Williams that I thought was going to be a big national best seller. So I went down to see him down on Varick Street. The American News Company has a whole building. I think they're still there--at 131 Varick Street. Harold was waiting for me in his shirtsleeves--it was a hot day--and I said, “I think we've got a big book for you at last, Harold, one you can really sell in quantity.”

He said, “Oh, I suppose it's that dirty book, Ulysses. I don't think it's for us.”

I said, “What do you mean, dirty? It's all been cleared by the court.”

He insisted, “It's not really our kind of thing. But you're nice fellows. We'll help you a little bit. We'll take 250 copies.” This was for the whole country, mind you!

Well, I started screaming. I got him up from 250 to 500. And then with some more screaming I got him up to a thousand.