by Rosalyn Eves
Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals. Compiled by Phebe Mitchell Kendall. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1896.
Mueller, Max Perry. Race and the Making of the Mormon People. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Newell, Quincy D. Your Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History. Published by the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada and the University of Utah, 1976.
Reeve, W. Paul. Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Richter, Daniel K. Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Taylor, Quintard. In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528–1990. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870. New York: Vintage, 2018.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* * *
If an author is lucky, as I have been, each new book pushes them beyond the mapped confines of their comfort zone. This book has been both a challenge and a joy to write, and the joy comes largely from the smart and generous people who have served as guides along this writing path.
First, I owe a huge debt to the brilliant guidance of my editor, Michelle Frey—particularly for her early question: What would happen if we got rid of the villain and changed the inciting incident? Her question changed the trajectory of this book for the better. My thanks also to the talented team at Knopf: Arely Guzmán, copy editors Jenica Nasworthy, Janet Renard, Artie Bennett, and Alison Kolani. The cover designer, Angela Carlino, and Whitney Manger created a stunning cover that made me cry the first time I saw it. And, of course, thanks are due to my agent, Josh Adams, who made this trail possible in the first place.
This book would have lost its way without the help of many experts: Dr. Jeanette Lawler and Dr. Cameron Pace for answering questions about physics and eclipse science; Dr. Lisa Tait, Dr. Paul Reeve, and Margaret Blair Young for vetting my details of nineteenth-century Mormonism; Dr. Gia Miller for patiently answering any medical question that came up; and several authenticity readers who helped me create a vibrant nineteenth-century world. Dr. Roni Jo Draper, Dr. Farina King, and Larry Cesspooch all helped me better understand the complex relationship between Indigenous peoples and Mormons. My thanks also to Jascin Leonardo Finger, who runs the archives at the Maria Mitchell House, for answering my questions about telescopes. If mistakes survived their scrutiny, it is doubtless my fault.
My writing is infinitely better because of my readers, particularly my writing group and sister friends: Erin Shakespear Bishop, Helen Chuang Boswell-Taylor, Tasha Seegmiller, and Elaine Vickers. I’m also indebted to many thoughtful readers who read various drafts of this book: Cindy Baldwin, Christy Belt (who also served as my guide on the ground to Monroe), Heather Harris Bergevin, Sheena Boekweg, Mette Ivie Harrison, Katie Henry, Amanda Rawson Hill, Carey Hord, Melanie Jacobson, Sandra Clark Jergensen, Brittany Larsen, Erin Olds, Jolene Perry, Stephanie Huang Porter, Lori Widdison, and Amy Wilson.
I’m part of too many writing communities to name here, but to all of my fellow writers who have talked shop with me, to the readers and book bloggers and librarians who have written encouragement and shared my books: thank you.
My endless gratitude to my family, who serve as my lodestars: my husband, Dan, who finally gets his own dedication, and my children; my siblings, Jared, Jenilyn, and Justin, who helped inspire Elizabeth’s large family; my in-laws, Robert and Trisha, whose help makes it possible to write; and my parents, Bruce and Patti, who read this book and didn’t hate it, and who have supported my writing since my very first scribbles started decorating our house (sometimes quite literally).
Last of all, to readers and friends who are still finding their path: thank you for joining me on this one, and may you find joy in your journey, and wholeness in its realization.
Erin Summerill
ROSALYN EVES grew up in the Rocky Mountains, dividing her time between reading books and bossing her siblings into performing her dramatic scripts. The telling and reading of stories is still one of her favorite things to do as an adult. This novel was loosely inspired by her great-great-grandmother, another Elizabeth Bertelsen, who turned eighteen in early 1878.
ROSALYNEVES.COM
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