I have benefited enormously from the good sense, expertise, and judgment of friends and colleagues. For early conversations and ongoing encouragement, I am especially grateful to Madeleine Blais, Bob Brick, Jerome Charyn, George Cuomo, Joseph Epstein, Robert Goldstein, Phil Graubart, Sam Tsemberis, and Douglas Whynott. In the course of my research and writing I have had the good fortune to be able to call upon several physicians for information, clarification, and explanations, and am pleased to be able to thank them here. Thanks, then, to Doctors Oscar Garfein, Michael Posner, Sam Rofman, Olav Thorsen, and Gerd-Ragna Bloch Thorsen. For their skills and generosity—for helping to return my life to me—I remain forever in the debts of Doctors Henry Cabin and Sabet Hashim. I am in debt, too, to their staffs, and to the personnel of Yale-New Haven Hospital.
For helping me check out, and enhance, my understanding of specific matters, I am grateful to Paul Ewald, Henry Harpending, Kim Hill, Magdalena Hurtado, Kenneth Ludmerer, David Mechanic, Renee Pennington, Louise Russell, and Allan Silver. Elise Feeley, reference librarian at the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts, has been a constant friend and resource. Greg Tulonen, in the early months of research, and James Zarnowiecki, in the final months, have provided excellent bibliographical assistance. Jane Rosenberg, of Eva Productions, has searched out much data for me and brightened many a cloudy day.
I owe an especial debt to Gerald Grob, who talked with me all through the writing of this book, from its inception to its completion. Along the way, he referred me to sources, corrected errors, read the entire manuscript, and offered numerous and useful suggestions. His generosity and friendship heartened me and sustained me. Doctors Martin Baskin and Rita Charon also read the entire manuscript and provided helpful reactions and comments. For invaluable technical assistance, I am grateful to Kim Florek and Merek Press. I am grateful, too, to Susan Zorn, who performed a masterful job of copyediting.
My children, Miriam, Aaron, and Eli, have been wonderfully generous in talking with me and bearing with me throughout the writing of this book. Their love, palpable and deep, is an endless source of joy. My brother Robert’s good heart and good will remain an inspiration.
I am blessed in having Richard Parks for an agent and friend. He has shepherded this book, and this author, through many hills, forests, and valleys. I cherish his friendship, his great good sense, and his indefatigable attention to detail.
From our earliest discussions, when I did not know whether or not I could or should write this book, my editor, Susan Canavan, has been a dear friend to me and to my writing. Her skills, and her intuitions, are exceptional, and I have depended upon them mightily.
What to say about Jerry Friedland, Rich Helfant, Arthur Rudy, and Phil Yarnell? They helped save my life, and then they continued, as before, to grace it with their friendship. We were boys together, and now we are men, and to know them, as men, as doctors, and as friends, is, literally—and more and more with the years—to love them. They gave of themselves unconditionally: in hours and hours of conversation, in exchanges of letters, in the reading of drafts of the entire book, and in that ongoing dialogue that is truly life-giving. They did so frankly, warmly, with endless optimism, realism, and good cheer, and without giving any hint, ever, that I was burdening them. The deficiencies of this book are mine. Whatever value it possesses is due largely to them. I trust that Open Heart does honor to them.