In the fall of 1971, I visited Leo Tolstoy's home in Moscow. There, tied in bundles and stacked against the wall, were his handwritten manuscripts for all of his great novels - War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection. For an hour I leafed through the mountain of paper, observing the man's handwriting, his strikeovers, and even the doodles he made in the margins.

An elderly Russian woman, the curator of the museum, noticed my deep interest in Tolstoy and began to talk to me. "He was a friend of the people, Leo Tolstoy was," she said. "Would you like to see his desk where he wrote?"

She didn't have to ask me twice! And the next thing I knew she had me seated in Tolstoy's chair leaning over his desk and holding his writing pen in my hand! I tell you, it was an awesome moment for me!…