This novel, in general, owes much to the writing of John Berger. More specifically, his portrait of Ernst Neizvestny, Art and Revolution informed the creation of Ernst Frankel.
Plume’s quip on page 86, “Every passion borders on the chaotic,” is taken from Walter Benjamin’s “Unpacking My Library: A Speech on Collecting” (trans. Harry Zohn). The line in full reads: “Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector’s passion borders on the chaos of memories.”
I am grateful to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, whose support of my work, extraordinary in both its surprise and generosity, was instrumental in allowing me to write The Long Corner.
Many thanks also to The Corporation of Yaddo, Colombe Schneck, Antoine Flochel and the Can Cab Literary Residence, Joe Blair, Deb Blair, Michael Reynolds, Eric Simonoff, Scott Sayare, Leslie Maksik and Jon Maksik.
Without Madhuri Vijay’s extraordinary intelligence, passion and vision, this book would be significantly worse than it is. Or, like so many other things, simply would not be at all.