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Get It Down. When Pierre Salinger asked him to get the Manchester book for Harper, Thomas first declared: "This company doesn't want to make a penny from the murder of John Kennedy."* That sold the Kennedys on Harper. Once he had the manuscript and saw in what grim detail it discussed the assassination, Thomas tactfully urged that Bobby and Jackie avoid it and appoint surrogate readers. The go-betweens' suggestions for changes were so demanding that Thomas finally quit listening. Astonished at his independence, Kennedy loyalists attacked Thomas and even now spread cutting stories about him on the cocktail circuit. Bobby Kennedy withdrew a collection of speeches that Harper was scheduled to publish. "If you live in a kitchen, you expect a hot stove," says Thomas philosophically. "But not this hot a stove."
Thomas is well aware that history can be written in white heat too soon after the event, that it may open raw wounds and hurt living people. All the same, he says, "people with a real knowledge of history should get it down. Admittedly, it's only a part of history, but that part can be balanced with other information." Though burned by the Kennedy experience, Thomas still delights in editing live history. He expects no problems with Svetlana. "In this case," he says, "the lady is mature and experienced." Indeed, Thomas seems to regard almost anyone's life as potential history. "Are you writing a book?" he prods public personages in his urbane way. "If you do write one, will you let me know?"
*Nor did the company make much ultimately. Since it agreed to donate all profits after the first 100,000 copies to the Kennedy Library, it made only $33,000 after costs and taxes on the bestselling book.