Chapter 7 - I ORDER THE BOOKS DESTROYED
At 8:12 the next morning, I made a stupid decision.
I called the printer.
“Destroy the entire run.”
The plant manager hesitated.
“All eighteen hundred?”
“Yes.”
“We need written authorization from the foundation.”
“I authorized the project.”
“You authorized funding. The foundation is the client.”
“I’m board chair.”
I was not.
I was chair of Avery Industrial Holdings.
Different entity.
The Avery Cultural Foundation had its own board.
I knew that.
Anger briefly made knowledge optional.
I called the foundation director.
“Destroy them.”
She said:
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because we have archival content under donor agreements, copyrighted photographs licensed for this edition, and a board-approved publication contract.”
“The book erases my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“So we stop distribution and correct the edition.”
“Destroy it.”
“No.”
My voice hardened.
“Patricia.”
Hers did too.
“Dominic.”
Good.
Then the foundation’s general counsel joined.
She explained:
Some copies contained licensed reproductions available only under limited print rights.
Destroying without preserving required archive copies could breach agreements.
Some historical material existed nowhere else in equivalent restoration quality.
The print run belonged to the foundation.
Not me.
I was trying to solve erasure with destruction.
The irony arrived late.
We compromised.
Distribution suspended.
Ten copies preserved under seal as archival evidence of the original edition.
The remaining unbound sheets pulped after board approval.
Finished copies recycled under supervised process.
Reprint after correction.
My unilateral phone call still caused costs.
The printer had paused an unrelated job to comply with what it thought might become an emergency order.
Rush-storage fees.
Scheduling loss.
The foundation billed $18,700 in avoidable costs to the anniversary contingency reserve.
I reimbursed it personally.
No corporate funds.
No donor money.
I wrote the board:
My initial destruction instruction exceeded my authority and was inconsistent with foundation governance. I apologize.
May you like
Humiliating.
Correct.
