On May 25, 1921, while Ray Stannard Baker was working on his book The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, he wrote in his diary, “I am suffocated with paper: I flounder in it, sleep in it, get my nose out two or three times a day for a breath of air and a bit of food…. If it had not been for many good friends and much delightful conversation, it often seemed to me that I could not live through it.”
When I first read this passage, I identified with Baker immediately. I had not taken a day off from the writing of this book for many months but thanks to exceptionally good friends I was taking breaks during most days, for walks, dinners, or an occasional movie. I have many people to thank for being supportive throughout the years I spent researching and writing Savage Peace.
I typically begin my acknowledgments with my editor and my agent. This is not just a matter of professional courtesy, for they are both deserving of such high regard. Throughout the making of Savage Peace, Bob Bender, my editor at Simon & Schuster, was always willing to listen to my ideas for structuring the book and my struggles to determine which individuals, stories, and themes on which to focus. From the beginning he and my agent, Alice Martell, saw the magnitude and value of the project. My work on this book was interrupted several times—for the promotion of my third book, for a major move and a renovation of the house to which I moved, and for a serious illness in my family. Yet Alice and Bob were always a support to me, cheering me on, believing in me at times when I was too exhausted to remember how to believe in myself. A special thanks also to Johanna Li at Simon & Schuster and Stephanie Finman at the Martell Agency.
Perhaps, though, the biggest thanks must go to the people who have been supportive on a day-to-day basis. June Zipperian, an avid reader and an exceptionally bright woman, read each chapter as I completed it. Knowing that June was eagerly awaiting the next installment was a great inspiration to me. And her critiques were astute and helpful.
Allen Schwartz, a strong daily booster of the project, carefully read the manuscript before I sent it to Bob, caught a few errors, contributed to the chapter on labor, and brainstormed with me on many occasions. I am especially grateful to him for introducing me to Ray Stannard Baker. Allen is brilliant, generous, and innovative. He’s a tough critic and thus keeps me aspiring to higher levels.
Alison Gibson is the head librarian in the town where I live. I referred to her as “a national treasure” in the acknowledgments of my last book; that title still stands despite her humble refusal to accept it. Alison was able to track down crucial primary sources for me and in the middle of her very busy days, she assisted me in often vexing research pursuits.
My research assistants on this book have been exemplary. I extend deep appreciation to Lee Edwards, Sarah Byers, David Fox, and Jess Gugino. Jess, who lives on Sandy Pond near the site of Mabel Puffer’s former home, tracked down some problematic details about the Puffer and Hazzard case, and spent some time with me when I ventured to Ayer, Massachusetts, to do research. Among other things, David Fox, who is a professional research librarian, did the very tedious job of finding and copying articles from various newspapers that covered issues of interest to me, especially the Abrams trial and the cat-and-mouse game of Mollie Steimer and the government agents. Sarah Byers, who is my sister and who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, spent many hours in Frankenmuth at the Michigan’s Own Military and Space Museum, and in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library researching the story of the 339th Infantry in northern Russia and the grassroots movement in Michigan to bring the 339th home. I am grateful for her excellent contribution and am pleased that sisters could work so well together.
A special note of gratitude to Lee Edwards, who was truly remarkable on several occasions, especially during the hunt for photos. This was a difficult task, as the photos could not be found in just two or three archives. Indeed, Lee net worked worldwide to find the very best depictions available for every item on my list. I may be most grateful to Lee, however, for her suggestion that I dictate the source note citations onto tapes that she then transcribed, putting them into Simon & Schuster’s preferred format. This and numerous tools that Lee devised for organizing the vast numbers of files were gifts. Thanks also to Lee as well as Sarah Byers, June Zipperian, Allen Schwartz, and Randy Smith for reading the manuscript. And another thank you to Lee for helping me in the very tedious task of fact checking.
I deeply appreciate Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, whose advice on the direction of my research, especially on the topic of civil liberties, was invaluable. Thanks to William Nichols, Robert Bannister, Blanche Wiesen Cook, William Preston, Jr., Jack Kirby, William Tuttle, and Michele Stoddard for listening to my concepts for the book and offering advice on parts of the research. I am grateful, as always, to Clare Coss. I am deeply grateful to Loretta Denner at Simon & Schuster and to Frederick G. Chase for his superb copy editing. And I would like to honor the memory of Arna Bontemps, who advised me, years ago at Yale University, on the Harlem Renaissance for my senior honors thesis—and who inspired me to further explore African-American history and literature.
I dedicated my third book to the people of Ripley, Ohio, where I live. I could have easily done that again. During the last few months of working on the manu script I would occasionally find a bag of fresh vegetables on my porch with no clues to identify the generous gardener. I thank whoever repeatedly left those wonderful parcels. Also high on the list are: Randy and Diana Smith for their exceptional Wednesday dinners; Roberta Gaudio and her sister Joanne May for their Sunday dinners; June and Don Zipperian for access to their refrigerator and dinners on their porch during summertime; Tara Davis for leaving a large basket of fresh fruit and cheese at my door during the last days of completing the manuscript; and Julie Kline and Debbie Scott, who I know deposited some of those fresh vegetables on my doorstep. Thanks to Linda Ross for spending a day with me working on source notes. And thanks to Oletta Jones, a gift in my life; and to Sandy Bertrum, Sandy Trammel, Kathy Layford, Dorothy Prevost, David and Susan Poole, Terry Neu dow, and Wendy Hart Beckman.
I am grateful also to Jim Fletcher, Faye Wells, Robert Q. Millan, Peggy Do brozsi, Linda Young, Ginny Kuntz, Ann Veith, and Jim Webb for assisting my mother and our family, and equally grateful to my mother for her strength and will power. Thanks also to Rev. Kevin Burney, Scott Byers, Ron Mathis, and Harry Landis. I must also acknowledge the Mercantile Library, Albert Pyle, Buck Niehoff, the Ohio Humanities Council, Gale Peterson, and Pat Williamsen for so kindly giving me a leave of absence from my duties on the boards of directors of both institutions in order to complete this book. My thanks also to Dale Brown, Jenny Clark, Lyn Boone, and Mae Case for being supportive. Thanks to Paul DeMarco for proofreading the legal interpretations in the book. Thanks to Her man Johnson, the son of Sergeant Henry Johnson, and Harry Weinberger’s nephew, Warren Weinberger, for their assistance. And thanks to William Tuttle, Theodore Wilson, and Paul Dean for help with my fact checking.
Special thanks to Norm Pearlstine, who continues to be supportive of my writing endeavors. And thanks, as always, to the Wall Street Journal, where I learned how to write well. Laura Landro’s words “Never fall in love with your own writing” have saved me on more than one occasion from leaving in a paragraph or two that should be cut. I want also to express appreciation to the New York Public Library not only for its superb resources at the main branch and at the Schomburg Library in Harlem, but also for the ever-inspiring atmosphere of the Main Reading Room on 42nd Street. I have a ritual of beginning each book in that room.
I am grateful to the Southeastern Ohio Regional Library, which spent a good deal of time tracking down the information I sought via Interlibrary Loan under the expert guidance of Alison Gibson. I must also extend my deep appreciation for the assistance of the entire staff of the Union Township Library. Thanks too to the helpful scholars, reference librarians, archivists, and curators in all the libraries, archives, historical societies, and universities noted in the Note on Sources. And thanks especially to the following:
Stanley Bozick at Michigan’s Own Military and Space Museum in Franken muth, Michigan; John Fox, historian at the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Ernie Porter at the FBI; Jim Kelling at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland; Helen Selsdon and Jaclyn Packer at the Helen Keller Archive at the American Foundation for the Blind in New York City; Robert Bannister, Professor Emeritus at Swarthmore College; Erika Gottfried and Peter Falardie at the Tamiment Library, New York University; Elizabeth Bouvier, Massachusetts state archivist; Gregory J. Plunges at the National Archives in New York; Robert Fleming, Emerson College Archives; Sean Noel at Boston University Library; John Aubrey at the Newberry Library in Chicago; Lisa Oppenheim at the Chicago Metro History Education Center, also at the Newberry Library; Mary Caldera and Danelle Moon at Sterling Library, Yale University; Lee Freeman, Sheffield (Alabama) Public Library; Pamela S. Bruner at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, University of Michigan; Julie Herrada, curator of the Labadie Collection in the Special Collections of the University of Michigan Library; Peggy E. Daub, head of Special Collections at the University of Michigan Library; John Howe, historian of the 369th Infantry Veterans Association in Albany, New York; Robert Parks at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York; Mark Hammond at Meridian World Data; Zoe Davis at the U.S. Senate Library; Mary Baumann at the U.S. Senate Historical Office; Sandra Davis, librarian at the Shreveport Times in Louisiana; William R. Lewis, grandson of William Henry Lewis, who was Arthur Hazzard’s attorney; Chalmers Hart Knight, at the University of Michigan; and Crystal Cro marite of the National Archives and Records Administration. A double thanks to Elizabeth Bouvier in Massachusetts, who tried so very hard to find the Puffer and Hazzard trial transcripts, and to Karen L. Jania at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. And thanks to Dick Brooks at the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Thanks also to the following individuals who so graciously assisted Lee Edwards in her search for photos: Cynthia Long of Toronto, Canada; Warren Weinberger, Harry’s nephew in San Diego; A’Lelia Bundles, Madam Walker’s great-great granddaughter in Washington, D.C.; Helen Selsdon, at the Helen Keller Archive in New York City; Lyn White Savage at the Carl Sandburg Home in North Carolina; Erika Gottfried, at the Tamiment Library in New York; Monica Bartoszek at the Albany Times Union in New York; Carol Butler at Brown Brothers in Sterling, Pennsylvania; Dr. Barbara Lewis, at the William Monroe Trotter In stitute at the University of Massachusetts; Stanley Bozick, at Michigan’s Own Military and Space Museum; Mr. G. D. Bye, at the Cambridge University Library in Cambridge, England.
Lastly, I would like to honor the memory of my two great-uncles, Schenck Simpson, who drove an ambulance in France during the Great War, and Stuart Tattershall, who served in the 331st Infantry; my grandfather Cyrus Null, who died in 1918; and my father, Dwight L. Hagedorn, who fought in World War II and deeply understood the promise and the pain of the aftermath of war.