Mickey Knox (b. 1922): NM met Knox, an actor, during his first trip to Hollywood in 1948 when he was stumping for the Progressive Party. They became good friends and in June 1951, NM, now at loose ends and looking for action after breaking with Bea, decided to accompany Knox on a cross-country drive to California in Knox’s new car. On the way to Hollywood they made a 20-minute drive through Palm Springs, which NM was scouting as a possible setting for his still-unwritten third novel, DP. NM wrote more letters to Knox, a blacklisted actor and acting coach who lived in Rome for decades, than to anyone else. See Knox’s fascinating and lively memoir, The Good, the Bad, the Dolce Vita: The Adventures of an Actor in Hollywood, Paris and Rome (2004).

reason I sold Naked: NAD was sold to Paul Gregory’s production company, Gregjac, for $100,000, and distributed by Warner Brothers in 1958.

Stan Rinehart: President of the firm of Rinehart and Co., Rinehart (1897–1969) was enthusiastic about NAD, but rejected DP.