The Houseguest (34 page)

author's note

W
HILE
THE HOUSEGUEST
is a work of fiction, I relied heavily on the following works for historical background and insight:
The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945,
by David S. Wyman;
A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust,
by David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff;
Millions of Jews to Rescue: A Bergson Group Leader's Account of the Campaign to Save Jews from the Holocaust,
by Samuel Merlin;
Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy, and Meshugas of the Yiddish Theater in America,
by Stefan Kanfer;
A Life on the Stage,
by Jacob Adler;
Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater,
by Nahma Sandrow; and
Der Payatz: Around the World With Yiddish Theater,
by Herman Yablokoff. While certain real individuals (Ze'ev Jabotinsky, for instance) or events (the
St. Louis,
to name one) appear here, a degree of creative license has been taken, especially with regard to chronology.

acknowledgements

I
'
D LIKE TO
extend my gratitude to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the Posen Foundation, the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Yaddo Corporation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation for their support and for their vote of confidence in my work.

I feel lucky to have found such passionate advocates for this book in Ellen Levine and in my phenomenal editor, Dan Smetanka, as well as Megan Fishmann, Kathy Daneman, and all the folks at Counterpoint. I'd also like to thank the following people for their guidance, support, friendship, and encouragement: Ken, Maddy, and Sari Brooks, Ann Campbell, Ethan Canin, Kevin Clouther, Abby Geni, Gwynne Johnson, Dorian Karchmar, Maria Massie, Dan Pope, Kiki Petrosino, Beth Remis, The Segall family, Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda Swanson-Davies, Elena Vassallo Crossman, Sunny Yudkoff, and Jason Zech. Finally, and most emphatically, I'd like to thank Pete Segall, Roscoe, and Iris for making this book, and all good things in my life, possible.