ArizonaGuy, does this also happen with RTFs in which the first element is *not* a graphical element (like the overscore above "Foreword" in your example)? If not, it's probably a glitchy implementation of RTF at the online-conversion-to-RTF end; sometimes an RTF that begins with a graphic can look like it has an extra closure to the graphic's anchor (remember, in RTF graphics are embedded twice in each file), and that would be a hanging "}" at the end of the graphic — which is being interpreted as the first character in the text.
And I grouchily disagree about using the .docx format as the baseline for conversion, at least when there are frequent significant nonlinear elements (like footnotes, multicolumn text, and partial-line-length wrapped-around tables/figure-captions). It's… not stable; for example, it's virtually guaranteed to screw up footnote numbering. Microsoft made some easier-to-implement-for-five-page-business-memo decisions in its custom implementation of XML (that's what a .docx file is) that have had unfortunate consequences for longform works with unpredictable repeating elements. The Durant doesn't have that problem (and it is, in fact, available for purchase in ebook form from Simon & Schuster, at a list price of $165
).