ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Research conducted in various archives in New York City and Sullivan County was partly funded by a generous travel grant made by the Society of Authors, to whom I tender grateful thanks.

Satan’s Circus would have been a much poorer book without the unstinting help I received from a number of people along the way. In Canada, Mary Becker of Kingston, Ontario—wife of Charley Becker’s grandnephew, the late Todson Harvey Becker Jr.—made her private collection of letters, papers, and family histories freely available to me. In the United States, John Conway, historian of Sullivan County, kindly read and criticized the sections concerning Becker’s youth in upstate New York, and Sandra Vossler of Humboldt County, Nevada, researched the later life of Becker’s second wife, Letitia, on my behalf. I would also like to thank Diane Hess of the Sullivan County Democrat, Howard S. Becker, Susan J. Becker, and Rachel Kahan. In Jerusalem, Hadassah Assouline arranged access to Abe Shoenfeld’s reports on Lower East Side criminals, archived among the Judah Magnes Papers. In New York and London, Sean Desmond, my vigorous new editor at Crown; Sara Holloway, my valued editor at Granta; and Patrick Walsh and Emma Parry, my agents—all strong supporters of the project—proffered invaluable advice and support. At home, Penny and Ffion made writing the book not merely possible but pleasurable. I can never properly express my gratitude for the sacrifice both have made on my behalf.