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He got a job at Warner Bros., as an assistant art director, drawing storyboards for a Tarzan movie, King of the Jungle (a bildungsroman, by the way). Hollywood went on strike a week later, October 5, 1945. The picket line was walked by movie stars and screenwriters and artists—not commercial admen …

He should have waited another semester before summoning her. He realized that only after she had quit her job as a salesgirl, packed her two suitcases’ worth of belongings, slammed the door on her ragpicker father, and moved across the country into his tiny studio apartment at the foot of the Holly…

When the collector couldn’t eat another bite, she surprised me again. She lay back on the pillows and let him massage her feet. She did not close her eyes but watched me instead. I knew that if I stretched out, dropped my feet in Arnold’s lap, he would massage my feet, too. Two Father Times massagi…

“The oshibori goes in the basket,” the mistress said. “You weren’t supposed to wash your face with it, just your hands.” Her voice sounded kind, but her look said, You’re an amateur at this. My return look said, I’m not a gold digger like you because mine has no gold.

“I hear you’re applying to …

A friend of his, an art collector, offered a loan—to be paid back in artwork—but only on the condition that he get to meet the teenager who had broken up a marriage. Arnold didn’t say as much, but I sensed I was part of the transaction. The collector owned a steel plant, three homes, had grandchild…