Mayflyes, Raphael Kirchner, 1904.
Wikiart.org
I want to thank Elizabeth Sullivan at HarperCollins for suggesting this book and bringing me back to mermaids—with all their power and kitsch and dazzling, glittering incomparability—as well as for being an engaged and whip-smart editor throughout. I’d also like to thank the team at Harper Design: art director Lynne Yeamans, designer Raphael Geroni, and production director Susan Kosko.
I also want to thank Steve Parke for all his stunning photography and for being willing to drop everything to photograph shell crowns and bejeweled eyelids and all manner of other shiny things to make this book that much more lovely. This book and The Faerie Handbook, too, would have felt impossible without his tireless help wrangling images.
Thank you also to: Massie Jones, for helping to research various mermaidy things. Tricia Saroya, for conjuring all sorts of mermaid-friendly wonders and making the world more beautiful generally. Kathy Shyne and Julie Komenda, for helping with some key decision making and planning. Karima Cammell and Clint Marsh of Castle in the Air, for their always stunning crafts. Sara Ghedina, for her always sumptuous recipes, no matter what I ask her to conjure. Vintage Roadside, for sharing their supercool midcentury expertise. Laura Silverman, Karin Strom, and Amber Eden, for whipping the recipes and tutorials into shape. The Corner in Baltimore, for allowing us to shoot mermaid drinks and glassware on its gleaming bar. All the mermaids and tail makers who agreed to speak with me, and to everyone else who contributed: Jill Andrews (and her daughter Jewel), Rona Berg, Sonalii Castillo, JoEllen Elam Conway, Allen Crawford, Ruut DeMeo, Florentina Duran, Laura Russell, Timothy Schaffert, Nikki Verdecchia, Melissa Wimbish, Stephen Winick, and Teri Pringle Wood.
All those who love mermaids, the ocean, and the insides of shells.
And, as always, thank you to my father, mother, and sister.