Chapter Fourteen. Ed and Johnny Find a New Muse

“I’m painting eaves," Johnny said. "There’s only one ladder, so you’re still on weed detail.”





“No, not Max Baer the boxer. Max Perkins, the biggest editor in the history of the book business!"





“Oh, yes," Edna said, "I just love Grace Livingston Hill. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve read all her stories.”





“Hell, I coulda written that one in my sleep," Johnny scoffed. "Didn’t I live most of it?"






Ed smiled. “Precisely what I’ve been trying to tell you. Practically every book gets made into a movie!”






“Think what a book The Oklahoma Buzz-Saw Murder Spree would make!” Johnny cried.

“Whoa,” Ed said. “We’re supposed to be thinking high-toned, remember?”

“I know,” Ed said. “Why not head out to Stanley Rose’s? We’re sure to run into some book-jockeys there.”





“Every novel," Saroyan said, "is a word from that language we have not yet translated.”





“A writer," Saroyan said, "must have but a single story: man.”






“Listen to your heart,” Saroyan said, “and hear its pure, simple message.” The boys took their leave before he could pick up any more steam.






Leona came to the door in the same emerald green housecoat and high-heeled slippers she’d worn the night she’d had Ed and Johnny over for spaghetti.





Ed noticed that the hand that raised her cigarette to her mouth was trembling.





"I can see how his proclivity for the frontiersman’s tall tale might be an asset in the movie business," Leona said. "But for the novel?"






Ed thought of a gag he’d heard about Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, but he decided this wasn’t the time.





“So this is where people in the literature biz get put up, eh?” Johnny said.





As they crossed the elegant lobby they paused, wondering if the day would soon come when they too would be put up in such a hotel on a studio’s dime.

“We don’t really work that way in the world of book publishing," Perkins said.





“Not even if we told you that he winds up with a rat army, practically, and uses them to go on a bloody rampage against all the people who ever picked on him?”





“You'll love this one," Ed said. "It’s about these steel workers that have lost their jobs and the only way they can make money is to become male strippers!”





Johnny ran outside and saw that the Nash was where Ed had parked it only minutes before. But Ed himself was gone.