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Acknowledgments As biographers research and write, they attempt what Edmund Wilson called the “triple thinking” of literature. There is the studied life of the biographical subject, perceived with all its archetypal and historical episodes; there are also simultaneously the thoughts and incidents of the biographer’s own solitary life; and there are, thirdly, the thoughts and actions of those who have chosen with generosity to help the biographer. It is this third group whom I most wish to acknowledge. Foremost for my thanks are two outstanding librarians at public institutions in the South. These are Edwin Frank at the Mississippi Valley Collection at the University of Memphis, and Lee Freeman of the Genealogical Department at the public library of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. Morgan Swan of the Beinecke Library at Yale University was also most kind. Gracious in their voluntary help to me also are a remarkable group of musicians, both jazz and classical, and other talented individuals in residence in Cincinnati, Ohio. These include Dan Arlen, Dan Baker, Andrew Balterman , Paul Burch, Beth Cooper, Thomas Klenk, Sallie Mock, Myron Neal, Bruce Sherwood, Kate Slater, and Janice Williams. And, as always, I wish to thank the three literary individuals who had both faith and practical expectations in my abilities as a biographer and novelist. These three are my experienced editors at Knopf, Ash Green and Andrew Miller, and my respected agent, John Ware. Many in my native state of Alabama also have helped me with the research for this book or have shared with me their knowledge and their love of the blues: I heard, could be, a Hey there from the wing / and I went on: Miss Bessie sounding good / . . . the house is giving hell / to Yellow Dog, as John Berryman once so poetically remembered. These good friends of mine in that joyful and rueful state of Alabama in the Deep South include Ben and Susan Windham, Bruce Lowry, the late Cody and Barbara Hall, and, most especially, Genie Sparks. And, in my greatest acknowledgments, in respectful memory of Talmadge Robertson (1905–1930) and Franklin “Baby” Seals (d. 1915), both of whom vamped their final blues in Anniston, Alabama. David Robertson cincinnati, ohio spring 2008 Acknowledgments 234 ...

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