My first set of thanks is to all who have contributed to the rich, variegated literature that now exists on the 1920s, without which this book could not have been written. Names are cited in the text and referenced in the notes. Additional thanks go to present-day scholars of the early twentieth century for help, lively views, and excellent advice, not all of which I have taken: Jessica Adler, Larry Brown, Carol Byerly, Jennifer Gunn, Susan Lindee, Beth Linker, Ron Numbers, Wendy Oliver, Stephen Ortiz, David Rosner, and Megan Wolff.
When I first became interested in Forbes in the 1980s, I did an initial search for documents and read the Senate hearings on the Veterans Bureau, plus materials in the National Library of Medicine, which also drew largely on the hearings. David Babbitt, a graduate student in history at the University of Chicago, worked with me on this, but it soon became obvious that the search for further resources would be difficult, and other parts of life intervened. I returned to the project after moving from Philadelphia to New York in 2005. Not having a research assistant, I benefited from the wonderful research team at History Associates Inc., located in greater Washington, DC. Their staff chased up materials; located and copied materials for me in Washington, Chicago, and elsewhere; organized a Freedom of Information Act request; and became enthusiastic about the Forbes project. All appreciated. My thanks to them all, but particularly to government historian Jamie Rife, with whom I speculated about the meaning of various findings, and to Laura Moore and others who did archival work on my behalf.
The National Archives are a treasure, and their archivists are a joy to work with. This book draws from National Archives in Washington, DC; College Park, Maryland; Chicago (for the trial); St. Louis (for personnel records); and Kansas (Leavenworth Penitentiary). In Chicago, I had a fruitful discussion with Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, the court in which Forbes was tried. In New York, Tom Harvey, a former senior official at the Veterans Administration, reminded me of the links that exist between past and present.
My thanks to Jack Gumbrecht at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and librarians at the Urban Archives at Temple University (both for materials about the Tullidge family); Shelly Bronk (Phillips Exeter Academy), Carol Salomon (Cooper Union), and Jocelyn Wilk (Columbia) who checked reports on Forbes’s education (he was not visible at any of these educational institutions); Charles Brodine (Naval History Center), Robert Aquilina (US Marine Corps History Division), and Mike Ressler (chief librarian, US Marine Band) for Forbes’s early military experiences; Ev Chasen and Darlene Richardson (Veterans Health Administration); Jack Metzler (Arlington National Cemetery); and others referenced in the text and notes. The papers of Warren G. Harding (on microfilm) were available in New York at the Mina Rees Library, CUNY Graduate Center. My thanks to the helpful librarians there.
The Internet has made materials not previously reachable available with a few clicks. Without it, I would never have found Julie Degenhardt, who is researching the McGogy family with Sherry McGogy (Kate Marcia Forbes’s family), or Cathryn Vannice, a professional genealogist who did invaluable work on the project on the West Coast and was a great, if far-off, colleague.
Especially important were members of the Forbes family and their spouses, who welcomed my husband, Jack, and me into their homes and gave us access to family papers. Thank you, Dick and Eileen Forbes, Joan and Arnold Marsh, Richard and Judy Barry, Robert and Rachel Barry, and Barry and Karyn Marsh. Their materials included some letters from Harding, letters between Charles and Kate Forbes, other letters, menus and lists, old newspaper clippings, wartime maps, and memorabilia. Barry Marsh, Forbes’s great-grandson, generously shared the research he had done on Forbes’s army career and gave me three spare brass buttons from Forbes’s World War I military jacket. Richard Forbes graciously shared memories of his family (from Forbes’s first marriage) and produced copies of documents he had rescued that had been disintegrating in a barn. Judge Thomas Hogshead Tullidge kindly opened boxes of records and photos of the Tullidge family at his home. We had an enjoyable time looking through all of these materials. Since these meetings, Dick Forbes and Tom Tullidge have died. The generations roll on through time.
Dr. Richard Harding, Warren Harding’s great-nephew, talked with me about his relative. Members of the Richardson history seminar at Weill Cornell Medical College gave valuable feedback. Special help came from Katherine Dalsimer and Ted Shapiro. Members of my own extended family joined in. William Wallace offered trenchant but kindly brotherly criticism from London, much needed at the time he gave it. Marcia Wiss pursued the career of Forbes’s lawyer, James Easby-Smith, at Georgetown University. Janine Barchas, professor of English, critiqued my prose. Isaac Barchas read part of the manuscript. Judy Cohen gave me her professional opinion on the psychology of Elias Mortimer. Gene Cohen shared his newspaper database on Spokane, Washington, where Charles and Kate Forbes once lived. Larry Lieberman gave us a fascinating and informed tour of areas relevant to Forbes in Hawaii. Mark Barchas read parts of the book and approved, which meant a lot. Friends requested oral updates on the Forbes story. Thank you, Don Haynie and Tom Hamlin, and Bill and Paula Frosch, for your continuing enthusiasm.
At Weill Cornell Medical College, Pamela Trester has been a marvel in tracking down appropriate images for the book (we avoided stiffly posed portraits as far as possible) and followed through on obtaining permission to use them. Richard and Judy Barry moved heavy boxes to find the photo that graces the cover (which in the original includes General John J. Pershing as well). Carl Sferrazza Anthony, the biographer of Florence Harding, found the best possible photo for her in the company of Forbes.
The New York Community Trust and its DeWitt Wallace Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College provided partial support for the research.
The detective work on research was fun. Getting the book into shape for publication requires a different form of energy, and grounding in the present. I am very fortunate to have Peter W. Bernstein for my agent in New York and Jacqueline Wehmueller as editor at Johns Hopkins University Press.
Appreciation above all goes to my husband, Jack Barchas, who read every version of every chapter as it came through and became a de facto part of the project. Thank you, Jack, for being a tower of strength and the most splendid man there could be.