ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To the patience, companionship and daily wisdom of my wife, who sat with me each day through a very close, creative and conversational summer that quickly became a memorable parallel to the writing. Her equally close reading, comments, encouragement and perspectives were an integral part of the happy urgency and endeavor from which the book emerged.

To the memory of my literary and philosophical brother, John O’Donohue, who always inhabited another parallel elsewhere to my specific somewhere, whom I greatly prized as a laughing companion in arms, a confidant on the hills of Connemara, and without whom my remaining days are irredeemably and immeasurably impoverished.

To Edward Wates, my close and well-tried friend on the mountain or at the dinner table, who over the years has been a natural conversational companion for me on the subject of the Three Marriages, and whose beautiful flat in Oxford provided a spacious and prized enclosure for writing the Himalayan chapters.

To Jake Morrissey, my editor, first for his generous understanding when the prolonged illness and eventual passing of my father prevented me from writing, then, and impressively, for his leaving me alone to produce the piece in its entirety, and finally, for his finely calibrated, critical encouragement, which improved and enhanced the finished book beyond anything I could have achieved under my own devices. A great thank you to him and all the good editors who have invisibly benefited writers through the centuries.

To Sarah Bowlin, editorial assistant, who clears a delightful way for authors with regard to the numerous and endless details necessary for publication: most especially, an enormous, heartfelt thank you to her for tracking down and securing permissions.

To my agent, Ned Leavitt, constantly alert to the possibilities and openings for new thought and new writing to go out into the world and to make the necessary arrangements for that to happen, keeping the interests of his author in mind. It is a pleasure to have developed over the years such a firm and easy friendship out of a very good working relationship.

To my assistant, Julie Quiring, who, as ever, managed to be my eyes and ears to the world while my head was actually buried deeply, month after month, in the manuscript. A fine writer in her own right: her reading of the book and her comments, especially on the marriage with the self, were a great help to the formation of the final chapters.

I would like to thank also Karen and Pete Backwell and Sharon Jansen, of Johannesburg, South Africa, whose generous hospitality and arrangements for me to speak in that remarkable country first gave birth to these thoughts and their elaboration. Their hard work and many introductions opened me up to new themes, a new circle of friends and a new country, with which I and my family have fallen deeply in love.

Last, to my son, Brendan, and my daughter, Charlotte, who are truly le choix du roi, whose presence in the world makes sense of any amount of endeavor and application, literary or otherwise. In their future lives may they find the elusive but obtainable happiness beckoning from inside each of the Three Marriages.