"Is it dated?"
"It is dated February 4, 1963, and a note at the bottom of the report states, 'All revisions completed March 6, 1963.' "
"My objection as before, your Honor," Brackman said.
"Overruled."
"Mark it 'Defendants' Exhibit H in evidence,' " the clerk said.
"Now Mr. Danton, you had by March 6, 1963, a completed manuscript of James Driscoll's book, had you not?"
"Yes, I had a finished manuscript by that date."
"Did you show it to anyone else working for Mitchell-Campbell?"
"I passed it on to Anita Lang."
"Did she subsequently make a report on it?"
"Yes."
"Is this the report?"
Danton took the extended sheet of paper, glanced at it, and said, "This is Anita's report."
"I offer in evidence Miss Lang's second report."
"Objection as before."
"Overruled."
"Mark it 'Defendants' Exhibit I in evidence."
"Would you please look at the next to last paragraph of the report where Miss Lang writes, 'It seems to me that the two flashbacks revealing segments of Private Colman's civilian life are extraneous. They advance neither theme nor plot and seem particularly obvious since we do not have similar civilian flashbacks for any of the other soldiers.' When The Paper Dragon was published, were these two flashbacks still in the book?"
"No, sir, they were not."
"They were deleted after Miss Lang made her report?"
"Yes, sir, they were."
"Who transmitted the request to Mr. Driscoll?"
"I did."
"In the last paragraph of her report, Miss Lang writes, 'Don't you feel we need another scene between Coop and the nurse to show how the squad's pressure on him is beginning to affect his behavior elsewhere?' In the margin, we have the penciled words, 'Fine, will do,' and the initials 'CD.' Did you write that in the margin?"
"I did."
"Was another scene between Coop and the nurse added to the book?"
"I don't remember, but I would imagine so. If Miss Lang made the suggestion, and I indicated it would be taken care of, then I'm sure I passed the request on to Jimmy. He was very receptive to most editorial suggestions, so I would say it was likely he added this scene as well."
"Before the book was finally published — what was its publication date, by the way, Mr. Danton?"
"October of 1963."
"When would you estimate you had a manuscript ready to go to the printers?"
"I would imagine some six months before then. That would be…"
"That would be…"
"In May, I would…"
"April, wouldn't it?"
"April or May, yes. We like at least six months' time for our salesmen to get on the road with a book."
"When did API see the book, would you know that?"
"Well, Mr. Driscoll took on an agent shortly after we contracted for the book, and I think his agent began showing it to the motion picture companies when it was still in galleys."
"Did API buy it from the galley proofs?"
"Yes."
"Would you know how much they paid for the motion picture rights?"
"Thirty-five thousand dollars."
"How much of that went to Mr. Driscoll's agent?"
"Ten per cent. Thirty-five hundred dollars."
"And how much went to Mitchell-Campbell Books?"
"Our contract called for twenty-five per cent of all subsidiary rights."
"You received twenty-five per cent of what was left after Mr. Driscoll's agent took his commission?"
"No. Our twenty-five per cent came off the top."
"In other words, you received a quarter of thirty-five thousand dollars?"
"That's right."
"You received eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars?"
"That's correct."
"And Mr. Driscoll's agent received thirty-five hundred dollars, which means that Mr. Driscoll was left with twenty-two thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars."
"If your addition is correct."
"I think it is."
"I'll accept it."
"That was his share of the sale of motion picture rights to his novel."
"Yes."
"The novel that later earned millions of dollars for API."
"Objection, your Honor. I do not see…"
"Sustained. Where are you going, Mr. Willow?"
"I am merely trying to show, your Honor, that Mr. Driscoll's alleged 'theft' hardly seemed to be worth all the trouble. The only ones who made any real money out of this supposed plagiarism were the people who made the movie."
"Your Honor," Brackman said, "I think a sum in excess of twenty-two thousand dollars can be considered 'real money.' Men have robbed banks for less."
"I quite agree, Mr. Brackman," McIntyre said. "I think we've had enough of this, Mr. Willow, and I see no point in pursuing it further."
"Getting back then," Jonah said with a sigh, "before publication, did you talk to Mr. Driscoll about anything in the book that might later prove troublesome?"
"Yes, we always do, as a matter of routine."
"Can you explain what you mean?"
"We're always concerned about the possibility of lawsuits. Invasion of privacy, usually. Or libel. In any work of fiction, there's the danger that someone will identify with a fictitous character and bring suit. We try to make sure that the names of the characters, for example, are not the names of any real people."
"What about telephone numbers?"
"We check those out to make sure they do not correspond to any real numbers in service."
"Did you take such care with Mr. Driscoll's book?"
"Well, there were no telephone numbers involved since the book is set in Korea, as you know. But we did ask Jimmy whether any of the names he used were the actual names of men he may have known during his Army service. He assured us they were not."
"Were any other precautions taken?"
"Yes. At one point in the book, Jimmy mentioned the lieutenant's serial number. The actual numeral appeared in the book, you see."
"Yes?"
"So we wrote to the Army and had them give us a nonexistent serial number we could use."
"I seem to recall a case involving another publisher in which a telephone number in a novel — the number for a house of prostitution — turned out to be a real number for a respectable woman living in New York."
"Yes, that's a well-known story in the trade. We try to be careful of such occurrences."
"So the serial number finally used was nonexistent?"
"Yes. A dummy number supplied by the Army."
"Did you have any similar qualms regarding the use of the digits one-oh-five to label Mr. Driscoll's division?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"We had no reason to believe the 105th was anything but an actual Army division."
"You thought the 105th was a real division?"
"We did."
"Didn't this trouble you?"
"It did not. An Army division consists roughly of eighteen thousand men. Worrying about the designation of such a large unit would be similar to worrying about" the designation of a city the size of Scarsdale."
"Then you never brought up the division number in any of your discussions with Mr. Driscoll?"
"Never. We thought it was one of the real divisions involved in the Ch'ongch'on River fighting, and it never occurred to us that we should try to change history."
"Did Mr. Driscoll ever say it was a real division?"
"He never mentioned it at all."
"Not at any time during any of your discussions?"
"Never."
"Thank you. Mr. Danton, how long have you been an editor?"
"I've been with Mitchell-Campbell Books since my discharge from the Navy in 1946. I was hired to handle subsidiary rights for the firm, but I began editorial work in, oh, it must have been '48 or '49. I've been an editor since that time."