Of course he had no money worries at that time, but that's hardly the point. The point is, he wanted the book to be seen entirely on its own merit, because it was quite a different matter from his other books.

He spent 12 years researching Joan of Arc's life, and writing the book. He said that he needed no research at all to write any of his other books, that he simply wrote them off the top of his head. He regarded "Joan of Arc" as more important than all the others put together.

I think most people would be quite surprised to know that.