Rare Book copy: With a note by Jacques Barzun stapled to front dust jacket cover: "This reprint by Scribers of L.T.'s novel reproduces text and introduction without change. The jacket of this particular book, however, gives on the front flap a statement to which both Diana T. and I objected, owing to its suggestion that the work was a roman a clef in which all the characters were identifiable with real persons. It is a fact that the Crooms are not Mr and Mrs Alger Hiss. Maxim Gifford is accounted for in the introduction. One pair was suggested to Lionel by people he knew, but as happened to Henry James with Miss Birdseye in the Bostonians, the suggestion was all unconscious and L. was taken aback when he found Diana and others telling him of the unwitting imitation. I believe some little trouble was caused when kind friends apprised the models fo their 'portrait', but it soon passed over. I respectfully suggest that this note be kept attached to the jacket and the jacket to the book. J.B." From the library of Jacques Barzun.

Gift of Jacques Barzun