My parents, Ethel and David Gershon, are no longer with me, but I will always be grateful to them for passing down their love of books and reading, as well as for teaching me so many other valuable things. I also want to thank my immediate family: Stuart, Rachael, Elizabeth, Eric, Eva, Alan, Ana, Ruth, and Selma.
I am especially indebted to Jackie Giusti Seaman for her impeccable taste and good advice, and whose efforts were vital to making this project come to life. My very special thanks to Tim Fortuna, whose enthusiasm and talent were constant inspirations for the Stuart Weitzman windows and who gave the artists’ shoes the best showcases that they could have ever had.
I am also indebted to Irma Wallin for her early proofreading of my introduction and to Jan Kardys, who gave me valuable advice and introduced me to my outstanding literary agent, Jackie Meyer at Whimsy Literary Agency, to whom I am also very grateful. I’d also like to thank Carolyn Hessel, Naomi Firestone-Teeter, Jan Constantine, Phil Kodroff, Barbara Kolsun, Susan Duffy, Hayley Gedney, Michael Mafrici, Richard Keller, Danielle Landry, and Nancy Simpson for their help and support. Many thanks, too, to Allen Kay at Korey Kay & Partners, who was generous with his time as well as his ideas. I am also grateful to Tracy Baldwin and Radio Flyer.
To those who helped track down some of the wonderful artists in the book, I am deeply grateful: Sandra McRitchie, George Carson, and Gillian Betty of Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland, who helped me locate Douglas Wilson in Australia; Paul Clarke at the First Gallery in Southampton, England, and Paul Spooner in London, who led me to Comrie; Raouf Sarwari for finding Tommaso Tastini; Mary Jane Sarvis and Joel Lentzner for their help with Graham Davidson; and Susan Diaz for contacting Dante Taparelli in Argentina.
To the team that helped me produce this book, my heartfelt thanks goes to photographer Lucas Zarebinski, stylist Sarah Guido, and Winting Goo. To Elizabeth Viscott Sullivan, Lynne Yeamans, and Andrea Rosen at HarperCollins, as well as book designer Alissa Faden, thank you so much for your enthusiasm and faith in Art & Sole and for working hard to make the finished book as strong as it could possibly be.
Finally, but very importantly, to all of my friends, thank you for your patience and support. I love every one of you.