ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I started work on Mount Terminus, I had every intention of completing it in three, perhaps four years. For reasons I’m not entirely sure I can adequately explain, the writing came, but it came slowly. My process, it seemed, was more in sync with geologic time than with publishing time. And while I’m sure he was none too pleased when we entered the fifth year of this endeavor, and then the seventh, and then the ninth, my longtime editor, Sean McDonald, never cast doubt into my mind that I would one day finish, that one day there would be a book we could both feel proud of. For Sean’s patience, devotion, loyalty, friendship, and sage direction, for his illuminating notes and great instincts, I am deeply grateful. Without him, I could have very easily wandered off into the wilderness and never returned.

I extend similar gratitude and thanks to Jin Auh at the Wylie Agency, who never ceases to go above and beyond. She read multiple drafts, provided valuable insights along the way, and accomplished the impossible task of rescuing my spirits when they needed rescuing. Thank you to Zoe Pagnamenta, formerly of the Wylie Agency, for selling the book to Sean when my children were just out of diapers (they’re now in high school), for being a dear friend in the intervening years, and for providing good company and a country retreat, where many of these pages were written. Thank you also to Tracy Bohan at Wylie, who has seen to it that Mount Terminus will have a life abroad.

In addition to these very fine people, thank you to Wesley Stace for his unmatched friendship and careful reading, and for sharing his encyclopedic knowledge on all the subjects I most value; to the talented writers and dear friends that comprise the Masonville Collective—Rene Steinke and Beka Chace, who read closely, edited meticulously, and fed me and sang to me; to Errollyn Wallen, for fortifying me with beautiful music; to Minna Proctor, for editorial notes, copyedits, and all-around brilliance; to Gary Shteyngart, for a place to write in Rome and Germantown, New York; to Emily Chamberlain and Ryan Elwood, my research assistants, who hunted everywhere for obscure books and added depth where depth was needed; and to Joel Stutz, for his lifelong support.

Thanks also to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for opening their archives to me.

Christine, my wife, who is the embodiment of the world’s most moving lyrical poetry, and my sons, Sasha and Nathanael, the most excellent young men I know—you are the reason I do everything I do.

This book is for my mother, Margaret Stutz, who has given all and asked for so little in return. And for her mother, Bessie Buschel, who, had she lived a few more months, would have turned one hundred upon Mount Terminus’s publication. She shared with me her great love of movies and books, and much, much more, and for that I am profoundly in her debt. For a tough old broad, my bubbie had a soft touch.