19. AAK notes, 68, Shirer-2, AP.
20. Ibid.
21. AAK notes, 69–70, Shirer-2, AP.
22. William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941), 350.
23. Carl Becker, Berlin Diary book review, Time, October 27, 1941; and Clifton Fadiman, “Seven Years,” The New Yorker, June 21, 1941.
24. William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary, 569–74.
25. Notebook titled “Berlin Diary,” private collection of Peter Prescott, AP.
26. William Koshland, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 2, 1975, AP.
27. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, January 3, 1975, AP.
28. H. L. Mencken, The New Mencken Letters, ed. Carl Bode (New York: Dial Press, 1977), 490.
29. “Helen Hedrick Knopf, Writer, 92,” The New York Times, January 17, 1995.
17. GOING OVERSEAS
1. “Clare Boothe Luce Dies at 84: Playwright, Politician, Envoy,” The New York Times, October 10, 1987.
2. Kirkus Reviews, March 31, 1941.
3. Ben Robertson, I Saw England (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941), 52.
4. BWK, letter to Ben Robertson, September 25, 1941, HRC.
5. BWK, letter to Ben Robertson, October 20, 1941, HRC.
6. According to U.S. Army World War II enlistment records, 1938–46.
7. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Peter Prescott, September 19, 1989, AP.
8. BWK, letter to Ben Robertson, December 10, 1941, AP.
9. A & B menage—4, AP.
10. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 3, 1975, and February 21, 1975, AP.
11. William Koshland, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 2, 1975, AP.
12. File “Pat 4,” 45, AP.
13. Peter Prescott, “Handwritten notes at lunch, Zhang,” n.d., AP.
14. Patti Solosky, College Relations, Union College, e-mails to and from the author, August 23, 2013, AP.
15. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Peter Prescott, September 19, 1989, AP.
16. Brooke Kroeger, Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst (New York: Times Books, 1999), 297.
17. The Diary of H. L. Mencken, ed. Charles A. Fecher (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), 246.
18. “Dinner at the Hovel,” Peter Prescott papers, September 2012, 58, HRC.
19. Blanche Knopf, “An American Publisher Tours South America,” The Saturday Review of Literature, April 10, 1943.
20. The Literature of Latin America: A Distinguished List of Books by Latin Americans and About Latin America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946).
21. Typed transcript dictated by BWK for her own records, AP. Quotations in the following paragraphs also come from this source.
22. Untitled typed notes of Susan Sheehan, 2, AP.
23. Ruth Levine Nasoff, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, September 24, 1975, AP.
24. Ibid.
25. The Diary of H. L. Mencken, 238.
26. Thomas Mann, The Story of a Novel: The Genesis of “Doctor Faustus” (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961), 13.
27. Divorce certificate, State of Nevada, January 1943.
28. Walter Benton, This Is My Beloved (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943).
29. Joseph Lesser, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, n.d., AP.
30. James D. Hart, The Popular Book: A History of America’s Literary Taste (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950), 273.
31. William Koshland, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 2, 1975, AP.
32. The Diary of H. L. Mencken, 269.
33. Ibid.
34. Frances Lindley, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 18, 1975, AP.
35. Ibid.
36. William Koshland, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 2, 1975, AP.
37. BWK, notes on 1943 London trip, HRC.
38. Ibid.
39. H. L. Mencken, letter to BWK, October 10, 1943, AP.
40. John F. Stacks, Scotty: James B. Reston and the Rise and Fall of American Journalism (Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), 72.
41. Edward R. Murrow, telegram to BWK and James B. Reston, New York, n.d., HRC.
42. Stacks, Scotty, 70.
43. Roosevelt soon dismissed Welles from his post, presumably on the basis of the FBI’s dossier on him.
44. BWK, notes on 1943 London trip, HRC.
45. Janet Murrow, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, April 17, 1975, AP.
18. THE WAR’S END
1. Geoffrey T. Hellman, Mrs. de Peyster’s Parties, and Other Lively Studies from “The New Yorker” (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 278–79.
2. The Diary of H. L. Mencken, ed. Charles A. Fecher (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), 296.
3. “John Hersey,” 3, Peter Prescott notes, AP.
4. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Peter Prescott, July 18, 1988, AP.
5. The Diary of H. L. Mencken, 316–17. Quotations in the following two paragraphs are from this source.
6. BWK, letter to Jenny Bradley, June 44, 1944, AP.
7. BWK, Peter Prescott collection, AP. Some accounts cite the intimate party occurring when Germany surrendered instead.
8. “Baltimore, September 23, 1944,” Peter Prescott notes, AP.
9. Ibid.
10. Vincent Fitzpatrick, interviewed by the author (telephone), August 30, 2013.
11. Bradley, Jenny 2, SS, AP.
12. Ibid.
13. Blanche-16, AP. The anecdote, the speaker anonymous, was repeated by William Shirer.
14. Thanks to Professor Bruce Fleming, U.S. Naval Academy, for his incisive plot summary.
15. BWK, quoted in Richard Oram, “‘Publishing Isn’t Just About Contacts; It’s Equally a Matter of Human Relationships,’” Cultural Compass (blog), January 14, 2010, HRC.
16. See Elizabeth Hawes, Camus: A Romance (New York: Grove, 2010).
17. N.d., but probably second half of the fifties.
18. Peggy Cullman, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, n.d., AP.
19. See Mann’s description of the visit to Mohonk Moutain House on pages 124–31 of Thomas Mann, The Story of a Novel: The Genesis of “Doctor Faustus” (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961).
20. Victoria Glendinning, Elizabeth Bowen: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), 58.
21. Peggy Cullman, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, early 1980s, AP.
22. Blanche 8, AP.
23. Peggy Cullman, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, early 1980s, AP.
24. Ibid.
25. Quoted in Adam Gopnik, “Facing History: Why We Love Camus,” The New Yorker, April 9, 2012, 70–76.
26. Gopnik, “Facing History,” 71.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Oram, “‘Publishing Isn’t Just About Contacts; It’s Equally a Matter of Human Relationships.’”
19. MORE BATTLES AFTER ALL
1. Pat Knopf 8.12, HRC; Blanche-6, AP.
2. Susan Sheehan interview notes, 1946, Europe, AP.
3. David Sanders, John Hersey (New York: Twayne, 1967), 49.
4. John Hersey, Hiroshima (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), 23.
5. Felicity Barringer, “Journalism’s Greatest Hits,” The New York Times, March 1, 1999.
6. William Koshland, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 2, 1975, AP.
7. Ruth Levine Nasoff, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 3, 1975, AP.
8. BWK, letter to AAK, July 18, 194
7, AP.
9. Blanche—physical, AP.
10. A & B merge—4, AP.
11. BWK, letter to Jenny Bradley, circa June 10, 1948, AP.
12. Jackson J. Benson, Wallace Stegner: His Life and Work (New York: Viking, 1996). The Knopf book that Alfred and Stegner helped write was This Is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic Rivers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955).
13. Blanche-22, AP.
14. BWK, letter to Jenny Bradley, October 25, 1948, AP.
15. BWK, letter to Bernard Berenson, November 18, 1948, HRC.
16. Bernard Berenson, letter to BWK, November 25, 1948, HRC.
17. Geoffrey T. Hellman, reprinted in Mrs. de Peyster’s Parties, and Other Lively Studies from “The New Yorker” (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 268.
18. Ibid., 269.
19. Ibid., 271.
20. BWK’s seven-page report on her trip to see General Lucius Clay, AP. All further quotations regarding Blanche’s diplomatic trip come from this source.
20. THE SECOND SEX
1. Victoria Glendinning, Elizabeth Bowen: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), 187.
2. Ibid., 190.
3. BWK, “I Dislike Clutter,” House Beautiful, January 1949, 88–89.
4. “Ross Macdonald,” AP.
5. From trial without jury, Judge Bok, March 18, 1949, Philadelphia County.
6. Commonwealth v. Gordon et al., the Opinion of Judge Bok, March 18, 1949 (San Francisco: Grabhorn, 1949).
7. AAK, letter to Mary Bancroft, April 25, 1949, AP; Geoffrey T. Hellman, in POP, vol. 2, 136.
8. Simon Lea, president of the Camus Society UK, e-mail to the author, October 2, 2013.
9. Notes titled “Blanche 8,” AP.
10. BWK letters to Jenny Bradley, October 5, 1949, and October 19, 1949, AP.
11. Bradley, Jenny-bi 5, SS, AP.
12. BWK, letter to Jenny Bradley, October 19, 1949, AP.
13. Jenny Bradley, letter to BWK, November 1949, AP.
14. Notes titled “Beauvoir 1, The Second Sex,” AP.
15. Beauvoir 2, Susan, A–G, AP.
16. BWK Brad 1/Jenny and Blanche, AP.
17. Frances Lindley, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 18, 1975, AP.
18. Ibid.
19. Stanley Kauffmann, “Publishing: Album of the Knopfs,” The American Scholar 56, no. 3 (Summer 1987): 371–81.
20. A note in Peter Prescott’s files (Bradley, Jenny—3, AP) about an interview with Jenny Bradley, confirming that Flanner and Blanche “had an affair.”
21. Janet Flanner, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, August 3, 1979, AP; and Peter Prescott’s files, 152, AP.
22. Frances Lindley, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 18, 1975, AP.
23. BWK, confidential letter to Jenny Bradley, January 27, 1950, AP.
24. Deirdre Bair, Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography (New York: Summit Books, 1990), 419; and Elaine Showalter, Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (New York: Scribner, 2001), 217.
25. Harold Strauss, letter to Edward R. Murrow, September 18, 1950, AP.
26. Ann Merwin, interviewed by Peter Prescott, in folder “BWK as publisher,” n.d., AP.
21. A WEDDING AND OTHER RIBBONS
1. BWK, letter to Elizabeth Bowen, June 18, 1951, AP.
2. Harding Lemay, e-mail to the author, October 12, 2013; and Harding Lemay, Inside, Looking Out: A Personal Memoir by Harding Lemay (New York: Harper’s Magazine Press, 1971), 245.
3. File “‘Koussie’ to friends—film” (Serge Koussevitsky), SS, AP.
4. Dwight Eisenhower, letter to BWK from SHAPE, July 1951, AP.
5. Blanche-8, AP.
6. Shirley Chidney, interviewed by Peter Prescott, n.d., AP. Quotations in the following two paragraphs are also from this source.
7. Grace Dadd, interviewed by Peter Prescott, n.d., AP.
8. Frances Lindley, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 18, 1975, AP.
9. Mem 946, AP.
10. Ibid.
11. William Koshland, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 2, 1975, AP.
12. Betsy Johnson, interviewed by Peter Prescott, October 27, 1990, AP.
13. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Peter Prescott, September 11, 1991; November 18, 1991; and November 21, 1991, AP; also by Susan Sheehan, February 3, 1975, AP.
14. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 21, 1975, AP.
15. Peter Prescott, “Handwritten notes at lunch, Zhang,” n.d., AP.
16. Ibid.
17. Harding Lemay, interviewed by Susan Sheehan regarding Frances Lindley and Blanche, n.d., AP.
18. Ibid.
19. Beauvoir’s biographer Deirdre Bair generously responded concerning Beauvoir’s book and its translation.
20. Ashley Montagu, letter to the Knopf publicist William Cole, used on the first-edition book jacket, December 11, 1952.
21. Philip Wylie, “A SR Panel Takes Aim at ‘The Second Sex,’” The Saturday Review, February 21, 1953.
22. Ibid.
23. Elaine Showalter, Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (New York: Scribner, 2001), 216.
24. Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, vol. 2, 1941–1967: I Dream a World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 215–18.
25. Ibid., 219.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. John C. Thirlwall, In Another Language: A Record of the Thirty-Year Relationship Between Thomas Mann and His American Translator, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), 139.
29. “FBI: See also Civil Service Commission,” SS, AP.
30. “Jascha Heifetz Leaves Israel; Cancels Concerts in Tel Aviv,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 20, 1953, www.jta.org/1953/04/20/archive/jascha-heifetz-leaves-israel-cancels-concert-in-tel-aviv#ixzz31dVKbAI8n.
31. The New York Times, May 31, 1953; and The Saturday Review, June 27, 1953.
32. Philip Vaudrin, memo to BWK, April 22, 1952, AP; and BWK, letter to James Baldwin, April 28, 1952, AP.
33. Philip Vaudrin, letter to James Baldwin, November 26, 1952, AP.
34. Philip Vaudrin, letter to James Baldwin, December 12, 1952, AP.
35. Peter Prescott file “James Baldwin,” AP.
36. The New Republic, June 22, 1953; and The New Yorker, November 7, 1953.
37. File “A & B,” 6, AP.
38. Ibid.
39. Mildred Knopf, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, n.d., AP.
40. Pat Knopf, letter to Peter Prescott, top of untitled page “Robert Lusty,” AP.
41. Story told by Alex Lichine to Pat Knopf, repeated to Susan Sheehan, AP; and Blanche-15, AP.
42. Wallace Stevens and Holly Stevens, Letters of Wallace Stevens (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), 846; Joan Richardson, Wallace Stevens, a Biography: The Later Years, 1923–1955 (New York: Beech Tree Books, 1988), 4; and Peter Brazeau, Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered (New York: Random House, 1983). Holly Stevens explains that while the Collected Poems were supposed to have been published on Stevens’s seventy-fifth birthday, October 2, 1954, they were officially published one day earlier, on October 1, because the second was a Saturday. The note doesn’t say whether the party Knopf threw for Stevens’s birthday was also on that Friday or on Saturday. In her biography, Joan Richardson claims that it was on Friday, too. In his letters, Stevens doesn’t seem to distinguish between the date of publication and that of the party, so they were probably both on October 1. Peter Brazeau, in Parts of a World, 416, says the luncheon to cel
ebrate the publication of Collected Poems was held on October 1, 1954.
43. Brazeau, Parts of a World, 195–96.
44. 167, AP.
45. Joseph Lesser, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, March 22–25, 1976, AP.
46. John Tebbel, Between Covers: The Rise and Transformation of Book Publishing in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 398.
47. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 21, 1975, AP.
48. AAK, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, July 27, 1973, AP.
22. NEW TERRITORIES
1. Dogs—Jon Godden, May 19, 1961, AP.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Publishers Weekly, April 2, 1955.
5. Norman Mailer, letter to AAK and BWK, n.d., AP.
6. Pat Knopf, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, February 2, 1975, AP.
7. AAK notes, National Parks, 5, AP.
8. March 11, 1956, Mencken, Peter Prescott collection, AP.
9. Blanche-3, AP.
10. Ibid.
11. Paul Gallico, “You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are to Be Married,” Reader’s Digest, July 1956.
12. National Parks, AP.
13. Dr. A. M. Mortensen, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, May 17, 1974, AP.
14. AAK notes, account of trip with the Herseys, 1956—Blanche 1, AP.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. AAK, letter to F. P. Griffiths, November 9, 1956, AP.
20. AAK, interviewed by Peter Prescott, November 9, 1956; “mem 1956/16f,” AP.
21. The Borzoi Quarterly 15, no. 3 (1966): 9.
22. Simon Lea, president of the Camus Society UK, e-mail to the author, November 19, 2013.
23. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, folder 10, box 203.
24. Jenny Bradley, letter to BWK, Bradley-4, n.d., AP.
25. BWK, letter to Jenny Bradley, Bradley-4, n.d., AP.
26. AAK, interviewed by Susan Sheehan, July 25, 1974, AP.
27. Albert Camus, AP.
28. Simon Lea, e-mail to the author, November 19, 2013.
29. Albert Camus’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, City Hall, Stockholm, December 10, 1957.
30. Judith Jones, e-mail to the author, October 6, 2013.
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