So, you have partnered with Tom Doherty on sff books for a long time…
Yeah, I met him at Grosset & Dunlap.
…to Ace Books, and obviously to Tor. Can you tell us when exactly you started working with him, and a little about the key to your successful business relationship? So, what is it that meshed you and Tom together?
(pause) I’m not sure. It was just a good partnership.
And how did you end up at Ace Books together?
Grosset corporately bought Charter Communications, which was Ace’s business identity, and asked Tom to be publisher and me to be editor in chief. Or they told us to.
And remind me…Tempo to Grosset & Dunlap…and did you leave? That’s when you went back to Charleston?
After Ace. And Tom was founding Tor.
At the time you left?
Yeah.
When you told him you were leaving, did he try to get you to stay in the area?
Oh yeah. He wasn’t too happy about it.
And you guys stayed in contact I’m assuming, after you’d gone?
Yeah, and Grosset was in the hands, at this point—very soon thereafter I think it fell into the hands—of one of the worst CEOs known to the publishing industry, Beverly Sills’ brother-in-law. His name was Something-Or-Other Sills. I never worked with him, but he was really not good. And one sign of it is that he fired Tom Doherty—you don’t fire Tom Doherty if you have any sense—so Dick Gallen called me and said this had happened, and he was thinking about seeing if he and Tom couldn’t make some money together, and what would I think about that, and I said, “Do it!” And that’s the very tiny seed that grew into Tor. And then Tom wanted me to be editorial director, and I said, “Well, Tom…” And he said, “I don’t care where you live. Just edit.” And that worked.
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