Chicken Dreaming Corn

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments It is a long wayfrom my grandparents' nineteenth-century birthplaces in Romania and Russia to a novel published in the twenty-first. Inventing this work has been made easier, and sweeter, by the sustaining love of Nancy and Meredith, my wife and daughter, always there for me outside the study door; the soulful, late-night dialogues with my sisters Sherrell, Becky, and Robbie and their families, including the much missed Charlie Grean. My Mobile and Memphis cousins over the years, and aunt and uncles, the late Goldie and AbeWalter and Louie Hoffman, added to the conversations. My parents, Evelyn and Charley, have been close to the heart of mywriting from the time I first seriously setpen to page.MyDad, who grewup over the real Dauphin Street store, is a superb raconteur. Although this tale is imagined, I gathered insights from many wise people. Medicine in history: Dr. SamEichold and Dr.Matthew Mosteller. Judaism: David Weiner, for his close reading of the text, and Rabbi P. Irving Bloom, for his teachings over many years. Yiddish: Elaine and Bernie Sherman. Spanish: Orlando Rodriguez. I've heard expressive stories of the past from many people, including my in-laws Dr. John H. Mosteller and the late Janet"Gran" Mosteller; my cousin Ronnie Hoffman, who knows downtown; Ruth Lamensdorf and John Strauss, who helped bring to life old Dauphin Street; ErnestEdgar Jr., Sam Brown, and the late Robert Adams for recollections of Armistice Day;the late JoeBear and AlbertaWest,for taking me wayback; and many ^43 244 Acknowledgments older folks I've interviewed for articles encouraged by Mobile Register editors Mike Marshall and DeweyEnglish, and my city desk colleagues. MyfriendsProfessorsJohn Hafner and WalterEdgarhad me read from the novel, respectively, in Mobile at Spring Hill College and in Columbia on South Carolina Public Radio (where a listener wrote in with the Romanian derivation of this novel's title) and at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. Professor Marc Raphael invited me to the College of William and Mary.Mygifted friend, the late BaileyThomson, always welcomed me at the University ofAlabama.Others havepromoted mywork: Kathleen Driskell of Louisville Review, Suzanne Hudson of Tulane's alumni magazine, Professor Bert Hitchcock of Auburn, Professor Sue Walker of the University of South Alabama, Joyce Dixon and Pam Kingsbury of southernscribe.com. Sena Jeter Naslund had me debut the novel and brought me into an inspiring circle at Spalding University's brief residency MFAin Writing program in Louisville. My colleagues include Karen Mann, Luke Wallin, Ellie Bryant, Melissa Pritchard, Connie Mae Fowler, Crystal Wilkinson, Dianne Aprile, GregPape, Rich Goodman, JeanieThompson, Bob Finch, Kirby Gann, Brad Watson, Elaine Orr, and Charles Gaines. I owe much to Eli Evans. Through his encouraging words and searching books Eli, in humor and friendship, has propelled me to seek out the crossroads of the two grand Americanliterary traditions weshare, the Jewish and the Southern. Many others have been supportive, including John Sledge, Karl Hein, Charles Salzberg, Diane McWhorter, Lincoln Paine, David Alsobrook, Michael Garin, Bob Wilson, Stan Tiner, Connie Rosenblum, Dana Jennings, Andy Antippas, John T.Edge, Gene Jones, Bill Baker,Eugene LeVert, Charlotte Cabaniss, Jake Reiss,Byron McCauley,Garry Mitchell, Sam Hodges, TomMathison, BillPangburn, BarrySilverman, and William Oppenheimer. At the University of Georgia Press John McLeod,Allison Reid, Sarah McKee, and Mary Koon havebeen of special help. Without myliterary agent, Joelle Delbourgo, and Universityof Georgia Press director, Nicole Mitchell, this novel might be a manuscript forever hopeful in a box, and I, rather than this book, would be the chicken dreaming corn. ...