The Sisters of Summit Avenue
Page 27
From the start, my friend Jan Johnstone was instrumental in helping me to unify the disparate aspects. (She also introduced me to book clubs by starting ours thirty-some years ago, and took me to my first yoga class about ten years back—everyone needs a Jan Johnstone in their life!) When she learned that Betty Crocker was to play a role in my book and that I was traveling to Minneapolis/St. Paul to dig up what I could about America’s Mother, she generously became my guide to the Twin Cities, as well to farming in the Midwest, educating me with a tour of her family farm in Hector, Minnesota. I thank her family in the Gopher State for so generously opening their homes and hearts to me during my visit: Geri and Joel Skogen, Sharon and Dan Marks, Chuck and Judy Gustafson, and Brian and Mary Gustafson, you are dear to me! Thank you, too, to Jan’s childhood friend, DeeAnn Norskog Edlund, for rounding up some Betty Crocker information.
On top of the crucial grounding in Minnesota and farming lore Jan and her family gave me, it was Jan’s sharing of her uncle Wallace F. Gustafson’s memoir that actually organized the book. In it, I learned of the dust storm that terrorized the entire United States east of the Rockies on May 9, 1934. “Uncle Wally” wrote that he had been driving his mother to the Twin Cities on that day and had to pull the car off the road for a long time—the dust completely blinded him. As I read that, a chill went over me. I knew this was the event around which I could center my plot.
Only four years (!) and a lot of help from my friends later, and I had a book. Thank you to Karen Torghele, Ruth Berberich, Jani Taylor, Sue Edmonds, and again, Jan Johnstone, for hearing me out on long walks and over dinners, supporting me and “the Betty book” through thick and thin. Thank you, too, to Colleen Oakley, Stephanie Cowell, Alison Law, Suzanne Van Atten, Susan Rebecca White, Michael Martone, Amy Bonesteel, and Joshilyn Jackson for your writerly pep talks. A huge thank-you goes to dear family friend Mark Meyer for being my guide into the past in Fort Wayne, and to long-term pal and confidante Barb Bedwell McKee for giving me a home away from home and a lifetime of great memories. (Thanks, too, Barb, for reminding me of the sound of those swings.) Thank you as well to Tom Murfield, Randy Harter, Monya Weissert, and Michael Martone, again, in your guidance of things Fort Wayne, and to Neal Butler, owner of Pio Market, for the tour of your grocery store which has remained much like it was when it was a cutting-edge self-serve Piggly Wiggly in the 1930s. Thanks so much, too, to Dan Wire, for the fantastic boat tour of the rivers of Fort Wayne, which are the lifeblood of those of us who grew up near them.
I’d like to thank my dear agent Emma Sweeney and the saintly Margaret Sutherland Brown at ESA for their readings of the book in its many forms and for their patient help in shaping it, as well as for their steadfast championing of my cause. I don’t have enough words to thank my editor Jackie Cantor for giving me permission to write the story I really wanted to write, and then for coaxing the best out of me—I am beyond grateful. I’m indebted, too, to Karen Kosztolnyik, for shepherding the story through its early stages. A special thanks goes out to Michelle Podberezniak, my publicist, for her dauntless efforts. And without the valiant team members at Gallery Books—including Jennifer Bergstrom, Aimee Bell, Lisa Litwack, Jen Long, Abby Zidle, Caroline Pallotta, and Sara Quaranta—you wouldn’t be reading this.
Each of these individuals has blown life into the book you now hold. But The Sisters of Summit Avenue is foremost about families and sisters, both of which I have plenty. Thank you to my sisters, Margaret Edison, Jeanne Wensits, Carolyn Browning, and Arlene Eifrid. You, along with our brothers Howard and David Doughty, have made me who I am and greatly influenced this story. I’m lucky, too, to have three great daughters—Lauren Lynch, Megan Cayes, and Alison Stetler—to shape my thinking and to mother me as much as I mother them. Thank you, girls; thank you, Sean, Michael, and Jamil, my wonderful sons-in-law. Know that you and your children are everything to me. And thank you, Mike, for being the most supportive, wise, and steady husband humanly possible. But at the core of this book are my parents—my gentle dad, whom I worshipped, and my mother, whom I never understood. I’m trying, now, to know you as the girl you once were—Mother, this book is my love letter to you.
More from the Author
Twain's End
Mrs. Poe
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LYNN CULLEN grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and is the bestselling author of Twain’s End and Mrs. Poe, which was named an NPR 2013 Great Read and an Indie Next List selection. She lives in Atlanta.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Lynn-Cullen
SimonandSchuster.com
Facebook.com/GalleryBooks
@GalleryBooks
ALSO BY LYNN CULLEN
Twain’s End
Mrs. Poe
We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster ebook.
* * *
Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.
Gallery Books
An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Lynn Cullen
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Gallery Books hardcover edition September 2019
GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco
Jacket design by Ploy Siripant
Jacket photography © Getty Images; © Shutterstock
Author photograph by Parker Clayton Smith
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-3416-6
ISBN 978-1-5011-3418-0 (ebook)