"As I have said, the design has been to make everything plain and
simple. I wrote the book and sent it to the Victor people. They returned
it, saying I had written an excellent book, but it was not simple
enough. They proposed sending a man to me who was neither a musician nor
a singer. If I could make my meaning clear enough for him to understand,
it was likely the girl from a little Western town could grasp it.
"So this man came and we worked together. If I talked about head tones,
he wanted to know what I meant; if about throaty tones, I had to make
these clear to him. When he understood, I was sure any one could
understand.
"Thus the books as they stand came into being. The records themselves
represent an immense amount of care and effort. Will you believe we had
to make over two thousand in order to secure the one hundred needed for
the present series? The slightest imperfection is enough to render an
otherwise perfect record useless. Even the artists themselves would
sometimes become discouraged at the enormous difficulties. It is
nerve-racking work, for one must be on tension all the time.