Acknowledgments

It is humbling to think of how many people have supported me during the years I wrestled with Arthur.

For their friendship and incisive commentary on drafts, I am indebted to, among others: Emily Austin, Thom Blaylock, Jae Won Chung, Keats Dieffenbach, Vedat Gashi, Olena Jennings, Ryan Joe, Simma Kupchan, Adam B. Kushner, Josh Lebewohl, Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, Abby Rosebrock, Chandler Klang Smith, Rachel Somerstein, and Alexa Winnik. No one read more drafts than Yvette Siegert, without whose advice and insight I would be a greatly diminished person and writer.

Thank you to many teachers, including Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, D.A. Miller, David Plante, and Alan Ziegler. Particular thanks are due to Leslie Woodard, a brilliant and generous mentor to me and to many others, who died suddenly in October of 2013 at the age of fifty-three.

Special thanks to Julian Tepper. Thanks to Tyson Cornell and the team that brought this book together: Julia Callahan, Angelina Coppola, Alison Klapthor, Alice Marsh-Elmer, and Lisa Weinert.

My deepest thanks of all to my parents, Michael and Barbara Gerrard, to my brother, William Gerrard, and to Grace Bello. Though she despises the word “inspiring,” Grace inspires me every day, and makes every day worthwhile.