Completing a book of 160,000 words feels like shepherding 160,000 beloved kittens across a busy highway. I owe a great deal of gratitude to a lot of people. First, I would like to thank the archivists at the research institutions where I visited, most notably the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum in Independence, Missouri; the National Archives in College Park, Maryland; the Library of Congress in Washington, DC; the FDR Presidential Library & Museum in Hyde Park, New York; and the Manuscripts & Archives at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Particular gratitude goes to Greg Bradsher at the National Archives, Randy Sowell at the Truman Library, and Professor Jon Taylor at the University of Central Missouri, a wonderful historian and writer whose close read of my manuscript truly helped me get it to the finish line. A special thank-you goes to Lisa Sullivan and the Harry S. Truman Library Institute for a small grant to help in research expenses. (At no time did Ms. Sullivan or anyone from the institute ask to see any part of my manuscript before publication.) My hope is that all of these figures who helped me along the way find value in this book.
This is my third book with the same editor, publisher, and agent, and that is truly a special thing. My endless gratitude goes to Susan Canavan at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Scott Waxman at the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. Your belief in me has changed the course of my life, and I will never forget it. Thank you also to everyone at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the Waxman Leavell agency for all your hard work. Megan Wilson at HMH is a great talent, as is editor Margaret Wimberger, whose careful reads and help shaping my endnotes were invaluable. Endless thank-yous to all of you.
As I wrote in the acknowledgments for my previous book, my wife, Michelle, is a great force behind everything we do together as a team. Without her, I would still be on page one, not of this manuscript but of everything in my life. Thank you, Michelle! Thank you also to Clayton Baime and Audrey Baime. You are the lights of your parents’ lives. Keep growing and being all you can be. Remember that every day is a blessing and should be savored. Remember every day how much you are loved, and that with this love comes responsibility.
My father, David Baime (to whom this book is dedicated), and my mother, Denise Baime, read numerous drafts of this manuscript. Both would have made terrific editors. Thank you for always being there, and I hope that this book can be an apology for all I put you through when I was a kid.
I would like to thank my family, whom I can never repay for all their love, understanding, and kindness through the years: Abby Baime, Susan Baime, my Aunt Karen and Uncle Ken Segal (who have always treated me as one of their own), the late Bill Green and the late Mildred Leventhal, my “outlaws” Connie and the late Bill Burdick, Jack and Margo Ezell, my many wonderful cousins and friends of the Crystal/Sabel/Segal clan, and the GG’s Ken and Edna Wheeldon. I would also like to thank so many people in the publishing and movie business who have guided me along the way. These figures include (in no particular order) Jimmy Jellinek, Chris Napolitano, Bob Love, Dave Itzkoff, Adam Thompson, Sam Walker, Lee Froehlich, Steve Randall, Mike Guy, James Kaminsky, Ken Gross, Lucas Foster, Alex Young, Greg Veesor, Scott Alexander, Steven Kotler, Richard Stratton, Amy Grace Loyd, Jon Marcus, John H. Richardson, and so many others. I am so grateful to have had the chance to work with you, and I hope to do so again.
To paraphrase Geoffrey Chaucer, go little book!