Fusilier

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Rah, Rah, Kant! Adler gave regular pep talks to the staff. As they tackled each new idea, he would point out mistakes, make suggestions, urge them to hit that line. Sample: "Aristotle and Aquinas are doing fine, but Kant, Descartes, Plotinus, etc. must catch up ... Under Topic 2b, I find only three references to Aristotle, and three to Locke. This cannot be all!! Something has got to be done about this . . . We cannot rest on such a random collection with such a major topic. I am sure I am right. Don't give in."

When the work was two-thirds finished, Britannica got discouraged with the amount of money Adler was spending (about $25,000 a month) and called a halt. Adler started phoning desperately. He sent Hutchins around the flank to Britannica's bankers, wangled permission to finish the job with only four editors (it took two more years). When it turned out that Britannica had no funds for an immediate sales campaign, Adler started writing letters, published brochures, finally hopped a plane and started selling in person. Notable catches: William Paley, Paul Mellon, Marshall Field, Conrad Hilton, Harold Swift. His biggest coup: 40 sets at one go to Allied Stores.

A Touch of Megalomania? With the Syntopicon out of the way, Adler might have relaxed, but, as his wife puts it, "he has a clock built inside him." He never stops ticking. His restless eyes have an intensely pained look, particularly when he has to sit still and listen to someone else talk. In appearance, friends have compared him to a better-fed Savonarola. He likes Brooks Brothers suits, good leather, fast cars, fine food (the waitresses at his favorite restaurants are under strict instruction not to tempt him with rolls and desserts), but whatever he enjoys, he usually enjoys in a hurry. He sometimes catches a movie, but rarely finds time to do any light reading—"I always have to read some damn great book." His wife has bought him a posture chair, but he shuns it, for fear he might fall asleep reading.

What makes Mortimer run? Says a friend earnestly: "The pursuit of truth." Friends also suspect that he is not always as sure of the truth in his heart as in his mind. He has long ago given up his parents' Jewish religion and has often been on the point of becoming a Roman Catholic. (His two sons, 11 and 13, were confirmed last month in his wife's Episcopal church.) He keeps a favorite cartoon on his office wall to kid his strong views on the need for religion (see cut). Once, after a particularly forceful lecture in San Francisco, a woman asked him whether he could have made an equally strong argument for the opposite proposition. "That," sighed Adler, "is the first sensible question of the evening. The answer is yes."