Acknowledgments

Part of the pleasure of writing, as well as the pain, is involved in pouring into that thing which is being created all of what [I] cannot understand, cannot say, cannot deal with or cannot even admit in any other way.

Ralph Ellison,
quoted in Jill Krementz, The Writer’s Desk

I couldn’t have written this book without being able to refer to the careful notes Guy kept on so many aspects of our life together. This accretion of statistics was impressive, to my mind, for the small amount of space it consumes on my bookshelf. Legible and compact, always informative, never superfluous, the Barra Archive, as I’ve come to call it, not only revealed forgotten facts but fleshed out fading memory.

Guy’s unpublished memoir, which he titled “Prospero’s Options,” gave me what I needed to know about his life before I met him.Another useful source was the memoir called “The Farm” written by Guy’s sisters about the family’s growing-up years in North Haven, Connecticut. For keeping me accurate on Waterman family lore, my deep gratitude goes to Anne Waterman Cooley and to the late Barbara Waterman Carney.

My own daily journal, begun on the day we moved to Barra, June 9, 1973, proved a reassuring tool, holding me to the line about the course of events and keeping me straight about dates.

I extend my boundless thanks to the following quintet:

Helen Whybrow inherited our Ethics books after she became editor in chief at the Countryman Press and made a point of walking into Barra to meet us. This was, we thought, an unusually friendly gesture to backlist authors. She kept Wilderness Ethics in print by bringing out a special edition after Guy died. When I told Helen I intended to write a memoir she offered to read the chapters, and I became the fortunate beneficiary of her clarity of mind, her innate sensitivity and discerning guidance, and her steadfast friendship.

Annie Barry, constant friend from my youth, played the hardest role of all. She found the unflagging courage to beam the searchlight on the truly troublesome questions, and I was sustained by her desire that I find the answers. For both of us it was often a rocky road, but to Annie’s friendship and loyalty I owe my profoundest thanks.

Brad Snyder became our friend through his climbing partnership with Guy’s son Johnny. When we began writing books Brad acted as our first-line-of-defense editor. Guy said Brad had the best mind of anyone he knew. Once again, I have drawn in generous portions on Brad’s intelligence and wit and devotion to the accurate use of language.

Chip Brown came into my life after Guy had died, when he got in touch about writing his own book on Guy. It was a good match. Guy would have liked Chip, and his generosity to me with his own insights gleaned from his outsider’s perspective, along with his skill at asking penetrating questions, drove me deeper into my own territory.

Sue Foster, valiant friend and neighbor, transferred my manually typed drafts to her computer more times than I care to admit, and always with facility and grace.

My deep gratitude to the generosity of Kate Botham, Eleanor Kohlsaat, Rebecca Oreskes, Louis D. Rubin Jr., Sally Tomlinson, and Lisa Troy, who read drafts and offered insight along with their encouragement. Annie Bellerose, Carl Demrow, Marie Kirn, Jon Martinson, Doug Mayer, Chuck Wooster, and Nick Zandstra, dear friends all, listened to me go on about my “discoveries,” and through the process of walks and talks and endless cups of tea, led me to see more. The book’s title comes from the formidable combined inspiration of Doug Mayer and Rebecca Oreskes. I thank Deborah Jones, a therapist I consulted when I was well into this project. For permission to quote from letters and from material read at Guy’s memorial service I would like to acknowledge with thanks Louis Cornell, Gil Murray, Annie Barry, Doug Mayer, Sue and Bill Parmenter, Douglas Teschner, Alice Tufel, and the late Earlyn Dean.

My agent, Christina Ward, did a fabulous job in championing my manuscript and arranging the perfect match. Jack Shoemaker and Trish Hoard raise their books like precious children. Under Trish’s dedicated care and sensitive guidance, my story blossomed into a lucky book.