Where the nature of the information passed on to me in these interviews was highly personal opinions, anecdotes, experiences, I feel it only fair to keep my sources anonymous. However, since these unnamed sources provided suggestions and data that have made portions of this book possible, I thank them now for their courtesy, patience, and frankness.
I am eager to tender my sincerest thanks and appreciation specifically to several prominent anthropologists, who learnedly and candidly replied to my inquiries, and who gave unsparingly of their time and erudition. I wish to acknowledge my debt to Dr. Frank J. Essene, Head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky; Dr. Leo A. Estel, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Dr. John F. Goins, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, California; Dr. Gertrude Toffelmier, anthropologist, Oakland, California. Among those outside anthropology, I am most grateful to Dr. Eugene E. Levitt, Chief of the Psychology Section, Indiana University Medical Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, for his cooperation and advice.
I cannot state too strongly that the factual briefings I received through these interviews were used by me in a narrative that is wholly a work of fiction. Not one of the anthropologists who proffered me advice or information had any foreknowledge of the contents of this novel, or had any involvement in its fictional aspects. If I have understood the factual material imparted to me, and used it correctly, if the resultant book has some semblance of accuracy and realism, then a great share of the credit is due to my eminent informants.
For further assistance, I am beholden to Elizabethe Kempthorne, Corona, California; Luise Putcamp Johnson, Dallas, Texas; and Lilo and William Glozer, Berkeley, California. But, as ever, my deepest gratitude goes out to Sylvia Wallace, Wife, for literary advice, for listening, for love.
Needless to say, the characters in this novel are entirely products of my imagination. If similar persons exist in my country, or elsewhere, I am delighted with my perception but quick to insist that the resemblance is coincidental. The strands of plot, too, are born of one author’s fancies. As to the customs practiced on the Sirens, these are a mixture of fact and fabrication. Some of the customs described were altered or modified from actual usages in real communities in Polynesia; some were inspired by true traditions of surviving cultures, but have been elaborated upon by my own make-believe; some were originated totally by the author.
Finally, I should like to comment on the authenticity of the novel’s locale. While I have crossed the Pacific Ocean twice, I have never physically set foot on The Three Sirens. I have searched for them far and wide, across many years, but their location has always eluded me. Not until recently did I know why. The Sirens had been too near at hand to be seen. It was only when I looked inward that I found them at last. I discovered them one day while musing before my desk, and suddenly there they were, so clear, so familiar, so beautiful—and it came as no surprise at all that where they were, where they existed, had always existed, was in that uncharted region of the imagination which is tabu to all but those who forever seek what life hides from us behind its drab, almost impenetrable curtain of reality.
IRVING WALLACE
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
The Three Sirens Page 70