This book has been twenty years in the writing, and many people have shared their memories and knowledge in support of the work. I am particularly grateful to Marnie Mueller and to Gail Hochman who both offered early encouragement to a very green writer, and to my Stonecoast MFA buddies, the “Vanettes”— Ginnie Gavron, Perky Alsop, Sarah Stromeyer, and Sharon Arms.
The women in my critique group have read multiple versions of this manuscript over two decades with patience and care. Thank you so much, Jacqueline Sheehan, Lydia Kann, Rita Marks, Brenda Marsian, Maryanne Banks, Patricia Riggs, Kari Ridge, Celia Jeffries, Kris Holloway, and Dori Ostermiller. I am grateful to those who offered their expertise about the legal and political issues critical to this story, including Chris Pyle, Bill Newman, Karen Shain, and Rachel Meeropol. Many of my friends, writers and readers, have read and given feedback on the manuscript. Thank you, Ann Ferguson, Jon Weissman, Jane Miller, Karen Shain, Alice Levine, Holly Bishop, Céline Keating, and Liz Goldman.
Once again, I deeply appreciate the experience, wisdom, and energy of publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek, and the team at Red Hen Press—Kate Gale, Mark Cull, Tobi Harper, Monica Fernandez, Natasha McClellan, and Rebeccah Sanhueza.
An earlier version of the first chapter was previously published as a short story titled “Her Flammable Sister” in DoveTales, an International Journal of the Arts, in their 2013 “Occupied” edition.
For readers interested in learning more about the anti-Vietnam War and second wave women’s movements, I recommend Sisterhood is Powerful by Robin Morgan; SDS by Kirkpatrick Sale; Underground by Mark Rudd; Fugitive Days by Bill Ayers; To Be of Use, poems by Marge Piercy; and the film She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry directed by Mary Dore.
I am deeply grateful to the women with whom I shared the socialist-feminist struggles of the late 1960s and 1970s. Our sisterhood changed and defined me.
My family has lived with Rosa and Esther’s story for decades, reading many versions and offering their support and feedback. This book is for you, Robby, Jenn, and Rachel.