I am grateful to Caroline Zancan, at Alfred A. Knopf; Andrew Wylie and Jacqueline Ko at the Wylie Agency; Hakan Jorikson, at the Gränna Museum; and Katherine Stirling, Lila Byock, and Ann Goldstein at The New Yorker.
David Pearlman, who called himself Poppa Neutrino and was the subject of “The Happiest Man in the World,” used to say thank you in a way that was so understated and humble that it conveyed a depth of gratitude that I have never heard the remark carry otherwise. In that spirit, I would like to say thank you to Jin Auh at the Wylie Agency, Ann Close at Alfred A. Knopf, and David Remnick at The New Yorker for their advice and judgment.
Rich Cohen, Charles McGrath, and Ian Frazier all helped me in one way or another make this book better. Willing Davidson helped me find Andrée’s grave. I had a species of guardian angel in the person of a young man from Montana named Grant Baldridge, who lives in Stockholm and found things for me in Swedish libraries and translated them. This book couldn’t have been written without his more than generous and intelligent help.