---------------------------------------------------------------- Transcriber’s note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_. The illustrations with a caption have been replaced with [Illustration: caption]. The few minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. ---------------------------------------------------------------- THE SEVEN STAIRS Stuart Brent THE Houghton Mifflin Company Boston SEVEN The Riverside Press Cambridge STAIRS Nineteen Sixty-Two First Printing Copyright © 1962 by Stuart Brent All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-8119 The quotation on pages 89 and 90 is from _The Literary Situation_ by Malcolm Cowley. Copyright 1954 by Malcolm Cowley. Reprinted by permission of the Viking Press, Inc. The Riverside Press Cambridge · Massachusetts Printed in the U.S.A. To my mother and father Acknowledgments In a real sense, this book is an acknowledgment to all who have had a part in shaping my life and being. Since their names appear only incidentally and accidentally—if at all—in the course of the text, I hope with all my heart that they will accept this collective note of gratitude for all their help. In particular, however, I wish to mention Hardwick Moseley for his encouragement when the going was rough; Milton Gilbert who made the Seven Stairs possible in the first place; Henry Dry, one of the few men I know who understand the meaning of forbearance; Goldie and Kalmin Levin (Jennie’s mother and father) for their devotion and unfailing help; Robert Parrish for his blue penciling; and Hope, who after giving birth to our son, Joseph, tenderly cared for the unstrung father through the pangs of giving birth to _The Seven Stairs_. S. B. Contents 1. And Nobody Came 1