by H. K. Bush
Here’s Emerson one more time: “To my friend I write a letter, and from him I receive a letter … It is a spiritual gift worthy of him to give, and of me to receive. It profanes nobody. In these warm lines the heart will trust itself, as it will not to the tongue, and pour out the prophecy of a godlier existence than all the annals of heroism have yet made good.” In sentences like that, I perceive the purr of universal things, the pulse of a cosmic astonishment that still makes getting up in the morning worthwhile.
There are different kinds of friends in life, and ours was almost entirely of the spirit these past two decades or so—consisting almost entirely of written missives, sent back and forth over many miles, delivering the words without bodily presence— except to the extent that our letters, as Whitman used to say, do embody us. In that sense, we were and are present to each other—in our letters. He who touches this book, touches me, sayeth Walt.
Yes, Marty, ours has been an epistolary friendship. Finally, that’s why I cannot pick up the telephone and call. It just seems out of character. Written words are superior. You taught me that, and modeled it, too, because you were a lover of words and letters, and you tried to lead a life that revealed to the world that words and letters matter. Your life has been to me like a letter dropped by God in the street. And I’ve tried, in return, to live up to your example.
As in all of my letters, I once again send my thanks and heartfelt best wishes to you, old friend. Try not to grieve too much. I give thanks in all things (Ephesians 5:20).
Sincerely,
E. Jackson Springs, PhD
Thanksgiving weekend 2010
Indianapolis, IN
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’m grateful to a great many people over a long period of time, for aiding in the effort to begin, work on, complete, and publish this novel. First, I acknowledge the people to whom this book is dedicated: my wife Hiroko, our son Daniel, and her parents, sister, and nephew back in Japan. I owe a lot to my side of the family as well: my late parents, my late step-parents, and especially Ron and Karla Franko and the indomitable Chelsea Emma Franko.
I’ve had excellent colleagues and friends who have also encouraged me; I thank them all, too many to list; but in particular, I would like to name Tom Moisan, Tom Walsh, Roger Lundin, Lt. Col. Keith Donnelly, and Georgia Johnston as chief among these beloved friends, for having passed on to whatever awaits us. I miss them all very much. I gained terrific help, and avoided terrific blunders, thanks to the impeccable readership of the likes of Devin Johnston, Aaron Belz, Saher Alem, Ray Benoit, Jim Hutchisson, Matt Nickel, Janie Chang, Kevin Mac Donnell, Kent Rasmussen, Jason Ashlock, my relentless agent Jill Marr and her colleagues at the Sandra Dijkstra Agency, and the towering team at Blank Slate Press, including Kristina Blank Makansi, Donna Essner, and Lisa Miller.
Finally, and like Jack: I thank God in all things, and I’m happy to recognize that every good gift comes down from above, from the Father of Lights (James 1:17)—including all the fine people listed above.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
H.K. Bush is a professor of English at Saint Louis University, a former Fulbright Senior Scholar in Freiburg, Germany, and formerly Senior Fellow at Waseda Institute of Advanced Study in Tokyo. Professor Bush is most noted for his work as a scholar of Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. His most recent book, Continuing Bonds: Parental Grief and Nineteenth-Century American Authorship (University of Alabama Press, 2016), is a cultural history of the deaths of children in the nineteenth century in America, and specifically how grief influenced the written works of major American authors. Previously, Lincoln in His Own Time, appeared in October of 2011 from the University of Iowa Press; and before that, Professor Bush authored a highly acclaimed cultural biography, Mark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of His Age (2007), and American Declarations (1999). In addition, he writes regularly in popular venues such as Books & Culture, Christian Century, The Cresset, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, among others. He blogs at halbush.com. The Hemingway Files is his first novel.