Sinclair admits he owes "several letters of thanks for your notes on the manuscript," but explains "I have been busy with my friend Martin Birnbaum who has just left. . . ." Martin Birnbaum, a longtime friend and classmate of Sinclair, was an international art dealer, critic and author, and was the inspiration for the character Lanny Budd, the hero of the World's End series. Sinclair goes on to write he cannot make the changes Kress has suggested as they are "too brutal" and would cause "people to drop the book."