Hidden Valley Road is a work of nonfiction drawing from hundreds of hours of interviews with every living member of the Galvin family (including Mimi Galvin, before her death in 2017), as well as dozens of friends, neighbors, teachers, therapists, caregivers, colleagues, relatives, and researchers. No scenes have been invented. All dialogue was either witnessed and recorded by the author or based on published accounts or the recollections of sources who were present at the time.
Additional resources were used to assemble the family narrative—including, most notably, extensive interviews with the schizophrenia researchers Lynn DeLisi, Robert Freedman, and Stefan McDonough; all available medical records for the Galvin brothers and Don Galvin; Don’s military service records from the Navy and Air Force; personal correspondence written by Mimi and Don; a series of brief recorded interviews with Mimi, conducted by her daughter Margaret in 2003 and 2008; and several entries from Margaret’s personal diaries and autobiographical essays. The text itself makes it clear when any of these sources are being utilized.
For all material requiring further citation—including all passages and chapters about the science of schizophrenia, genetics, and psychopharmacology—notes are provided below.