Brotherhood

by Anne Westrick

  For young readers interested in looking further into the period of Reconstruction and the origins of the Ku Klux Klan, I recommend They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Houghton Mifflin, 2010), and Reconstruction: Binding the Wounds, edited by Cheryl Edwards (Perspectives on History Series, Discovery Enterprises, Ltd. 1995).

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am grateful to numerous friends, relatives, and organizations whose knowledge, exhibits, and archived documents helped me write this novel: my aunt Mary Bryan Harms, Tom Robinson of Richmond’s Gallery 5 (formerly the Virginia Fire and Police Museum and Steamer Company No. 5), the White House and Museum of the Confederacy, the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, the Virginia Historical Society, the Valentine Richmond History Center, the Library of Virginia, the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, and Sally Craymer for her expertise in teaching children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.

  I am indebted to Susan Hankla for offering classes where fledgling writers find encouragement, to Deirdra McAfee for her editorial eye, and to readers who critiqued early drafts: Gigi Amateau, Claudia Brookman, Dick Davis, Ann McMillan, Meg Medina, Nylce Prada Myers, Jan Tarasovic, and Penelope Carrington Wallace. Special thanks to the supportive community within James River Writers, and particularly to the faculty and students at Vermont College of Fine Arts, notably my advisers Ellen Howard, Louise Hawes, Uma Krishnaswami, and Kathi Appelt, whose suggestion to restructure the story was nothing less than brilliant.

  A huge thank-you to my agent, Leigh Feldman, and editor, Regina Hayes, who saw promise in this novel and provided insightful suggestions that guided me in making valuable revisions for clarity, depth, and polish. And finally, to my amazingly talented husband and children: your creative passions inspired me to find my own. Thank you, all.