AUTHOR’S NOTE

History is the rough draft. Our minds do not easily assimilate its raw form. It is messy, often chaotic. We yearn for catharsis, and that is a matter of form as well as content.

A good historical novel differs from most good “narrative nonfiction” in three respects: gaps in the historical record are filled in; more emphasis is placed on subjective human experience; dialogue and thoughts are provided. Some historical novelists place a premium on entertainment value, others on authenticity, yet others on style. I think of all these aspects as interconnected and consider it my obligation to value them equally. Similarly, some write intimate novels that just happen to be set in the past, while others write epic novels that fill broad tableaux with names and intersecting story lines. Again, I try to provide both the small frame and the context, but in a streamlined and concise way.

The job of the historical novelist is to comb out the noise, find the dramatic arc, and shape events into a psychologically and emotionally cogent argument. Inevitably, this involves some reorganization of the raw material. I strive to modify the order of events as minimally as possible. However, storytelling remains paramount. As a result I have had to shift some events. Among these modifications:

• The meetings with Dr. Zilboorg (who, it seems, did assault Kay sexually) commenced later than as related in this telling, probably in 1934 or 1935. I needed this sequence to build slowly, rather than suddenly.
• Adele Astaire married Charles Cavendish in 1932, a little later than suggested here.
• George Gershwin moved to 33 Riverside Drive in 1929, not in 1932.
• The first time Kay visited George, Paul Mueller did not yet work for him. In fact, it was Kay who convinced George to hire a valet, and found Paul for him.
• George Gershwin dated Paulette Goddard during his second sojourn in Los Angeles, not his first.
• I’m not by any means sure Kay met Faye Hubbard in Reno. But it does seem to me that in certain ways her trip to Reno did set up her later marriage to him.
• I do not know that Gershwin had to provide thirty percent of the budget for Porgy. I have used this round number to dramatize the risk for him, which was considerable.
• The lyrics of “Little White Lies” have been lost, so I made them up.

Roanoke, Virginia, January 6, 2020