The Trouble with Tom
Page 25
An account of the death and burial of E. B. Foote Sr. can be found in In Memory of Edward Bliss Foote, M.D. (1907), a compilation of addresses and newspaper clippings related to his funeral. For E. B. Foote Jr.'s final days, see the posthumous collection Edward Bond Foote: Biographical Notes and Appreciatives (1913). One anecdote involves the senior Foote's seventieth birthday, when the old doctor was given a wonderful present by Junior—a collection of fifty newfangled phonograph wax cylinders, each bearing birthday messages from across the country. He set one into his phonograph and out crackled the voice of his old friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton—a very old friend, as she was now eighty-four—and the doctor listened appreciatively as her voice spun from the revolving cylinder:
I am glad to tell you that there is no old age but old age of the heart, and if you wish to preserve what health and youth you still have, I will give you three directions: First, sleep all you possibly can. Next, do not worry; whatever you can prevent that's wrong, do so; what you can not, accept. One more: Interest yourself crackle, crackle, crackle in some great question of reform.
And indeed he did—they all did.
Acknowledgments
WITHOUT THE LOVE and support of my wife Jennifer, my first reader and editor in all matters, this book could not have been written. For rather like Tom Paine's bones, it has had some unexpected travels and surprises—namely, the birth of our son Bramwell and our family's move from Oregon to Iowa. Those readers of my work about my son Morgan will understand how in watching my two sons grow, history becomes meaningful to me: they remind me of why it is that I write.
Were it not for the immense help of Marc Thomas, this book would have taken me many years longer to write. Thanks are due as well to Michelle Tessler and Colin Dickerman for shepherding it through to publication. There were innumerable libraries and antiquarians essential to the creation of this book, but particular thanks are due to the library at Columbia University and to the Guildford Museum. A tip of the hat, too, to the scholars who were so generous with their knowledge when I contacted them—David A. Wilson, Madeleine Stern, Michael Sappol, and Janet Brodi—and to Olivia Lo and Josephine McNeil for humoring my unaccountable need to see a gravestone sitting in a dog-filled garage.
I am indebted to my fellow authors at the Friday-afternoon Scrabble game here in Iowa City for their tea, ginger cookies, and sympathy while I went through several sleepless months finishing the book, and . . . okay, okay, I'll take my turn now.
Finally, my great appreciation indeed to the many efforts over the years by the staff of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, from E. B. Foote and Moncure Conway on up to Brian McCartin. New members are always welcome at their Web site:
www.thomaspaine.org
A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
Paul Collins is the author of Banvard's Folly, Sixpence House, and Not Even Wrong: A Father's Journey into the Lost History of Autism. He edits the Collins Library for McSweeney's Books, and his work has appeared in New Scientist and the Village Voice. He lives in Iowa City.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Banvard's Follly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't Change the World
Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books
Not Even Wrong: A Father's Journey into the Lost History of Autism
First published in Great Britain 2006
Copyright © 2005 by Paul Collins
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