The Carl and I
So while the rest of the world is having this Carl Sagan moment with the debut of the new Cosmos TV series, inspired by Sagan's original series from 35 years ago, let me tell you what Carl taught me. It's something different from what everyone else is saying... When I started work at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency in February 1986, I got to be Carl's literary agent. Well, not really, or not exactly, but each desk at the agency had certain clients assigned to it, and Carl was assigned to my desk. For Carl, this didn't mean very much. It meant that I was the person in the office who got to type out a transmittal letter for each check. Yes, this was the 1980s. This was done by hand on a typewriter, that we had gotten $568.76 for French royalties to Cosmos, and after our commission and 2% to Alan Lomax and some percent to the ex, here is your check for $352.32. This was a pain in the neck, but it was still a thrill to be even that close to someone like Carl...