The Great Swap

I read with considerable interest John Steele Gordon’s piece “The Problem of Money and Time” in your May/June issue. By a happy coincidence I gave a lecture recently to a group of visitors on the history of Cartier. In the course of my remarks, I of course told the story of the swap—the house for the pearls—and, in an effort to hammer home the accuracy of the story, I concluded with the comment “If you don’t believe me, read page 57 of this month’s American Heritage!”