This book would have been impossible without the support, insight, and assistance of a long line of people. First and foremost, my appreciation to my wife, Brenda, for her patience and putting up with me when I would disappear into archives on Saturday afternoons. Thanks also to my children—Ian, Eliza, and Phoebe—for much needed daily doses of inspiration and laughter, and to all of the extended Norris and Bradberry clans for being such good readers.
Special thanks go to Mary’s most immediate surviving family members: Anne and Tom Beatty, Ted McGrory, and Polly McGrory. They have all been fantastically supportive through the long trek of writing this book, from gauzy concept to final product. Getting to know all of them has been a lasting pleasure. Thanks also to Brian McGrory for his considerable assistance and unique insight into Mary as both a person and a journalist.
I also want to single out the small circle of friends whom I rather cruelly subjected to early and very unfinished versions of this book: Mike Petrosillo, Robert Templer, and John Raho. All did me the favor of providing honest feedback, and the text is much better for it as a result. Greg Pollock, Jason Forrester, Matt Berzok, Charles Kenny, and Mark Joyce also deserve many thanks for their long-standing and unflagging support of my efforts to write and tell a compelling story.
I can’t say thank you often enough, or in enough different ways, to Mary’s good friend, John O’Brien, who appeared like an angel to help me find such a fine home for this book at the eleventh hour.
Special thanks also to Gail Ross, my agent, who has been such a good, resolute partner in this endeavor and so supportive of my work.
I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have worked with Wendy Wolf as my editor on this book. Few authors are lucky enough to work with someone doubly blessed with such good nature and such a graceful pen. I owe a considerable debt of gratitude to both Wendy and Kathryn Court for believing in this book and embracing it. Thanks to you both. I also owe special gratitude to the editorial team at Viking for first-rate work in copy editing, fact-checking, and design.
Many thanks also to Susan Glasser and her team at Politico, who did such a nice job in shaping the first article I published on Mary.
I also want to offer special recognition and credit to the scores of Mary’s friends, colleagues, peers, and associates who agreed to be interviewed as part of my research on this book and have wanted it to succeed every step of the way. Getting to talk at length to such a fascinating group of people has been an abiding pleasure. Mary was blessed with a great circle of friends.
I also want to say a special thanks to the staffs at not only the Library of Congress, but the many archives and presidential libraries whose resources I frequently called upon while writing this book. Even when my research requests verged on looking for a needle in a haystack, these professional librarians and archivists were friendly, encouraging, and stubbornly persistent. They are a deeply underappreciated wonder.
Many thanks to my friend and colleague Annie Malknecht for her gracious assistance in wrestling stubborn photos and PDFs into shape. I also want to acknowledge the fine genealogical sleuthing of Brent Bradberry that was so helpful in reconstructing Mary’s roots, and to thank Kai Bird for his initial introduction to Gail Ross.
Lastly, and while realizing I am surely missing others who deserve kudos, I want to thank Mary McGrory—not only for leading a splendid, interesting life, but for launching me on such an intriguing pilgrimage.