Safe Suicide

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Acknowledgments

Safe Suicide This page intentionally left blank. Safe Suicide Narratives, Essays, and Meditations R DeWitt Henry RED HEN PRESS | Los Angeles, California Safe Suicide: Narratives, Essays, and Meditations Copyright © 2008 by DeWitt Henry All rights reserved No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner. Book design by Mark E. Cull ISBN: 978-1-59709-100-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007941168 The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County Arts Commission , California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts partially support Red Hen Press. First Edition Published by Red Hen Press www.redhen.org To Connie, Ruth, David and Eva Acknowledgements The following essays appeared slightly different form in The American Voice (“Memoir of My Father”), Cottonwood Review (“Odd”), Nebraska Review (“Subversions,” “My Dog Story”), The Iowa Review (“Bungee,” “Gravity,” “Improvisational,” “On Aging”), The Harvard Review (“Forces of Nature”), The Berkeley Fiction Review (“Beautiful Flower”), The Missouri Review (“Wide-eyed” under the title “Wide-Awake”), The Green Hills Literary Lantern (“Arias,” “Besmirched”), and Agni (“Innocents Abroad”). My thanks to these publications and their editors. “Wide-eyed” from Fathering Daughters by DeWitt Henry © 1998 by DeWitt Henry and James Alan McPherson. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston. Special thanks to John Skoyles for help with editing; and to Jack Smith for proofreading. ...