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But I'm sure they didn't realize what a book they had, and you didn't either, did you?

No. No, I didn't. I saw Dexter Perkins the other day, up at Cornell, and he said to me, “You know, it's extraordinary. That book of yours is certainly--I crossed the ocean with you, and you were thinking about it then, and of all the books that have been written, that's certainly the best book that's been done. That is the book that I want to keep on my shelves, that I want to keep in the American History section here at Cornell. It is the book that's important.”

I don't know why. People like Dexter Perkins say that about it, and I think it probably has certain aspects that I didn't dream were important. Taubman liked it very much at the beginning.

Do you think he knew?

I don't know if he did. How would anyone know? I don't know whether the publishers knew or not. They certainly worked over it punctiliously, I mean over the production of it, getting the book manufactured--very nicely. There was a man working up there then, man with an Italian name, very well known fellow--he told my doctor (I didn't