One of the great pleasures of writing a novel like this is that I meet so many people willing to help me fashion fictional reality from our nation’s history. Without their opinions, insights, expertise, and criticism, my work would be much less enjoyable. I thank all of them, from the nearest to the farthest away.
In Massachusetts: at the Massachusetts Historical Society—William Fowler, director; Peter Drummey, librarian; Celeste Walker of The Adams Papers; and the wonderfully helpful library staff; also Ned Downing; Christopher Keane; David and Nancy Sutherland; Dixie Whatley; and the staff of the Weston Public Library.
In New York: William Kuntz.
In New Jersey: Garry Wheeler Stone, historian, Shore Region, New Jersey State Park Service, and the staff at the Monmouth Battlefield State Park.
In Virginia: at The Papers of George Washington—Philander D. Chase, Jack D. Warren, Mark Mastromarino; at Mount Vernon—Barbara McMillan, librarian; Mary Thompson, research specialist; and all the staff and docents; at the City of Fredericksburg Department of Tourism—Karen Hedelt. Special thanks go to Ann Rauscher, former director of Media Relations at Mount Vernon, and to Dorothy Twohig, editor emeritus at The Papers of George Washington, a great friend to historians and historical novelists everywhere.
In Paris, France: Le Comte René de Chambrun.
In exploring the world that Washington walks in this book, I have visited dozens of historical sites—private, state, and federal—staffed by enthusiastic docents, interpreters, re-enactors, librarians, and park rangers who keep open the windows on a world all but gone. Consider that the scene set in the cornfields above Kips Bay, in Part Four of this book, unfolds on ground now crossed by Second Avenue and Thirtysecond Street in Manhattan, and you can’t help but appreciate the work of these people in saving the past. My thanks to them all.
In Massachusetts: at the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House in Cambridge, and all along Boston’s Freedom Trail. In New York: at Washington Headquarters State Historic Park in Newburgh on the Hudson; at Fraunce’s Tavern Museum in lower Manhattan; at the Jumel Mansion in Harlem. In New Jersey: at the Princeton Battlefield State Park; at the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton. In Pennsylvania: at the historic parks at Fort Necessity, Valley Forge, and Washington Crossing; and at the Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia. In Virginia: at Colonial Williamsburg; at the Colonial National Historical Park and the Victory Center at Yorktown; at Carlyle House and the Gadsby’s Tavern Museum in Alexandria; at the George Washington Headquarters in Winchester; at the Mary Washington House, the Ferry Farm site, and Kenmore in Fredericksburg; at Monticello in Charlottesville; and most important, at Mount Vernon, where the Mount Vernon Ladies Association has been preserving and studying George Washington’s world since before the Civil War.
Finally, my thanks, as always, to my editor, Jamie
Raab; my agent, Robert Gottlieb; and my family, all of whom contributed in various capacities, as research assistants, proofreaders, opinion-givers, and general inspirations.
WILLIAM MARTIN
October 1998