The Curiosity: A Novel
Page 41
I had plenty of other help. Karl Lindholm introduced me to the wonderful world of early baseball, including such books as Where They Ain’t by Burt Solomon, Boston’s Royal Rooters by Peter Nash, and The Boston Red Sox by Milton Cole and Jim Kaplan. Early drafts of this book had many pages of Jeremiah’s baseball enthusiasm; I removed them with reluctance.
Abby Battis, collections manager at the Lynn Historical Society, and former society president Steve Babbitt, provided century-old maps of the city, property transactions, and The Lynn Album, A Pictorial History by Elizabeth Hope Cushing. The description of a heart’s desire to beat came from a conversation with transplant surgeon Michael Borkon, M.D., of St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri.
Decades ago when I was a junior editor at a daily newspaper, veteran court reporter Mike Donohue coined the phrase “perv du jour” to describe the sex-crime stories he was filing on a nearly daily basis. I borrowed his words for a new meaning; here for you, Mike. This book’s title came from the lovely Emily Day.
Erastus Carthage’s theories deepened thanks to Dick Teresi’s interview of the late cell scientist Lynn Margulis in Discover (April 2011). Deborah Bergstrom enlarged my knowledge of the effects of rapid freezing on cell chemistry. My walking reconnaissance of Boston occurred in the fine company of Dr. Mark Bronsky.
A number of people aided this project by reading or listening to early drafts, especially Chris Bohjalian, Nancy Milliken, and Susan Huling. Kate Palmer offered insights on character during every draft, and often provided the faith that kept this project aloft. My sons, in addition to being an inspiration every day, deserve gold stars for patience with a father whose imagined world woke him to write at odd hours, and thus frequently forced them to wait around while he napped on the floor later in the day. I am indebted to my trusted literary agent, Ellen Levine of Trident Media, for finding Jeremiah a happy home at William Morrow. Jennifer Brehl is an excellent editor, striving in the direction of love while curbing Dixon’s excesses. She had sage help from Lorissa Sengara at HarperCollins Canada (gratitude to Iris Tupholme there as well). Thanks to Rich Green at Creative Artists Agency for seeing Jeremiah’s film potential, and to Hutch Parker at 20th Century Fox for excellent plotline suggestions.
For years my work has benefited from Roberta MacDonald and the farm family owners of the Cabot Cheese Cooperative (who generously supported my efforts to improve end-of-life care), intelligent publicity work by Wendy Knight at Knight & Day Communications, unexpected friendship from Joan Hornig, and timely moral support from Dave Wolk. These people are more than a writer’s allies; they are friends of incalculable value.
About the Author
STEPHEN P. KIERNAN is a journalist and a graduate of Middlebury College, with an M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an M.F.A. in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has written two works of nonfiction—Last Rights and Authentic Patriotism—that promote better end-of-life care and civic engagement, and his writing and journalism have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Brechner Center’s Freedom of Information Award, the Scripps Howard Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment, and the George Polk Award. He lives in Vermont with his two sons. The Curiosity is his first novel, and film rights have been bought by 20th Century Fox.
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Also by Stephen P. Kiernan
Last Rights
Authentic Patriotism
Credits
Cover design by by Mary Schuck
Cover photograph © by Corbis/www.fotosearch.com
Grateful acknowledgment is given to Ice Nine Publishing Company for permission to reprint four lines from the Grateful Dead song “Ripple,” lyrics by Robert Hunter, copyright © by Ice Nine Publishing. All rights reserved.
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE CURIOSITY. Copyright © 2013 by Stephen P. Kiernan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-222106-3
EPub Edition JULY 2013 ISBN: 9780062221087
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