Acknowledgments

I’VE WANTED TO write a book about fatherhood for a long while—since just after the birth of my son, actually. I was spectacularly unprepared for the moment and needed, desperately, a guide to the job.

The problem is that my kids are still reasonably young—two, five, and seven—so I haven’t been able to see very far over the fatherhood horizon. The truth is, I’m not really equipped to write a fatherhood book just yet. But last year I edited a book for the Templeton Press called The Seven Deadly Virtues, and it was so much fun that a week or two after it came out the publisher asked if we might do a sequel. Which is when I realized that there was an easy way to do my book about fatherhood. All I had to do was get the band back together and have my favorite writers write it for me. Jackpot.

So if you read The Seven Deadly Virtues, most of the faces in this book will be familiar: P. J. O’Rourke, Larry Miller, Jonah Goldberg, James Lileks, Joe Queenan, Iowahawk, and Michael Graham are all back. Toby Young and Joseph Epstein are new additions, because some of the contributors to The Seven Deadly Virtues couldn’t do this book, on account of their not being fathers. But I’ve admired Toby and Joe for years and am honored to have them on the squad. Rob Long was with us on the other book and isn’t a dad—isn’t even married. But that actually made him the perfect person to write the chapter on marriage this time around. He’s like Jane Goodall among the apes.

I love all my writers equally, but Andrew Ferguson, Christopher Caldwell, Matt Labash, Tucker Carlson, Steve Hayes, and Matt Continetti occupy a special place in my heart. I met all of them through my day job at the Weekly Standard before I had kids. Before I was married. They are the ones I’ve always gone to for advice about the important things in life: writing and parenting. And over the years they’ve given me guidance, solace, and alcohol, as needed. Getting to write a book with them about fatherhood has been a great gift.

For this gift I have Susan Arellano to thank. She and her team at Templeton Press, especially Trish Vergilio, made this entire project possible. I wouldn’t have attempted a book like this without a friend like Susan riding shotgun. And of course, there wouldn’t be a Templeton Press without the generous support of the Templeton Foundation and Sir John Templeton. Many thanks to them as well.

There are other debts for The Dadly Virtues. I’ve only met Harvey Mansfield once, but it was enough to leave a deep mark on me. He has influenced my thinking, not just on manliness and fatherhood, but about much else as well.

My dear wife, Shannon, has given me all that is good in my life; without her there would be no sun. She is everything to me. And in addition to all of that, she is, as always, my editor of first and last resort.

My two girls, Cordelia and Emma, loom large in this book, even though they lurk just off the page. I was unready for many aspects of fatherhood, including how deeply I fell in love with them. They are my princesses and my best friends.

My final thanks goes to my oldest, Cody. When the nurse first handed him to me, he stared up from his swaddle with wide eyes. And I told him that everything was different now, and that no matter what, we would always have each other. I love you, my prince. All the way.

—JVL