Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the many institutions and individuals whose help I received during the course of writing this book. Chief among the institutions is the Library Company of Philadelphia, whose impressive collection of nineteenth-century Pennsylvania newspapers is available to researchers not on microfilm but in the flesh, so to speak—that is, in bound volumes. This made an enormous difference to me, for turning the papers’ well-preserved pages and letting my eye fall at will, I was able to make unexpected and important discoveries about the Chapman case.

I had some of this joy-in-print at the American Antiquarian Society, where researchers are permitted to read actual print if the newspapers they wish to study have not yet been microfilmed. Fortunately some of the papers I needed had not yet suffered that awful fate.

The Allen Room at the New York Public Library was another special place. The library’s trove of early nineteenth-century books is a marvel, and the Allen Room, where I was kindly granted permission to read for a year, is a researcher’s paradise.

I’d also like to thank Yaddo, where the voice of David Paul Brown seemed to enter into me, and the Bucks County Historical Society. This book would truly not have been possible without the society’s exceptional collection of Bucks County books and papers, and especially without the generous help of librarian Donna Humphrey.

It might not have been possible, too, without the assistance of my bright and dogged researcher Jasmine Park, at the time a mere junior at the University of Pennsylvania. She was wise many years beyond her age.

There are many other people I want to acknowledge: Dr. Lawrence Alpert for providing me with information about arsenic poisoning; Oliver Allen for allowing me to examine the remarkable Philadelphia watercolors of his ancestor George Albert Lewis; Rebekah Ambrose of the Onondaga Historical Association for information about early nineteenth-century Syracuse, New York; General Ray Bell for tips about soldiering during the War of 1812; Brett Bertolino of the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site for information about the prison; Kellee Blake of the National Archives Mid-Atlantic Division for telling me about William Chapman’s baggage; Norman Brower of the South Street Seaport Museum for enlightening me about what it was like to sail to America in its earliest days; Cintra Jones Browse and Eithne Ross for familiarizing me with the family history of prosecutor Thomas Ross; Kit Campbell for information about early nineteenth-century costume; Al Clark of the Barre Historical Society for his entertaining stories about Lucretia Chapman’s youth and family history; Mignon Geliebter of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy for sending me material about Elias Durand; Judy Keenan and Ellen Saxon for accompanying me on site visits to some of the Bucks County locations mentioned in the text; Bonnie Lassen for her heroic wrestling with the endnotes; Dr. Richard Layman of Bruccoli Clark Layman, Inc., for information about early nineteenth-century publishing; David Moore of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania for helping me trace the genealogical history of various individuals mentioned in this book; Mary Sicchio of the William Brewster Nickerson Memorial Room for information about the Winslow family; and Rachel Winslow for perambulating around Philadelphia with me in pursuit of my characters’ old haunts.

Last but very far from least, I want to thank those who read early drafts of the manuscript and made astute comments, among them Deborah and Jude Pollack, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, and Lois Rosenbaum. My debt to them is great. But my greatest debts are to my husband, Max Pollack, who kept me going during the four years it took to write this book, and my daughter, Jessica, whose brilliant editorial suggestions and extraordinary spirit have sustained me always.