Robert Campeau

"Ms. Hidy wouldn’t put Campeau on the line. She said that only after I’d “described the tonality” of my book in a second letter would Campeau even consider the idea of our talking. She confided that Campeau was unhappy with recent press coverage of his troubles, particularly the June 18, 1990 Fortune article entitled “The Biggest, Looniest Deal Ever,” and was considering filing some lawsuits of his own. I argued that articles could not be compared to books, which are longer and give the writer enough space to tell all sides of the story. She countered that Campeau had hated the tonality of the Canadian biography, Campeau: The Building of An Empire."

"As I talked to Ms. Hidy, I imagined that Campeau was nervously pacing the marble floors of his $5 million (realtor’s estimate) or $10 to $12 million (his estimate) updated chateau with its Olympic-sized swimming pool purified without chlorine, wondering when it might be sold out from under him to satisfy one of many of his loans in default."