The Mandarin Club (47 page)

To fellow polishers of prose, the author is deeply indebted as well. Joe Kanon, Joe Tanner, Florence Ladd, Leonard Wolf, Jason Warburg, Demaris Brinton, Liza von Rosenstiel, Colleen Sechrest, Kim Armstrong Strumwasser, Gordon Kerr, Ron Goldfarb, and the indefatigable Bruce Bortz deserve special thanks. Bruce leads by example while bringing wisdom and style to all he touches.

Power in Washington is exercised in the most peculiar ways. Learning to savor this combat while upholding essential values can prove to be a challenge, one that is aided considerably by the knowledge and candor of friends. Having a day-job populated by the likes of Carl Ford, Amos Hochstein, Jerry Schecter, Paul Behrends, Richard Dennington, Larry Barrett, Ken Wollack, Paul Leventhal, Jody Powell, P.X. Kelley, Kathy Gest, Cindy Brown, Lien Fu Huang, and Gerry Cassidy has been a source of countless insights. Each of their unique contributions is much appreciated. Many were unwitting accomplices in the work at hand. None bear any responsibility for indiscretions or literary excess.

Standing out in this crowd is my friend Kathleen Anne McCloskey, who has consistently encouraged the work as a member of our extended family.

At home, Jennifer, Joy, and Dylan enriched the story with humor, tolerance, and unconditional affection. Special appreciation goes to our in-house Chairman of I.T., Mr. Zachary Arthur Warburg, who stands as a heroic bridge across the chasm dividing parents who grew up without computers from kids who can save them—and their manuscripts—from getting lost in cyberspace.

Gerald Felix Warburg has worked in Washington on trade, intelligence, and international security matters since the Ford Administration. He has served on the staff of leadership in both the United States Senate and House of Representatives, where he was a principal draftsman of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act and other U.S. foreign policy initiatives. In addition, he has provided counsel to several American presidential campaigns and to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

As a visiting lecturer, he has taught history and government courses at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and for Stanford and Georgetown university programs. The author of
Conflict and Consensus: The Struggle Between the President and Congress to Shape U.S. Foreign Policy
(HarperCollins), he is currently Executive Vice President for a Washington government relations firm.

A native of Marin County, California, Mr. Warburg holds an undergraduate degree from Hampshire College, and an advanced degree from Stanford University. He and his family reside in Virginia.

The Mandarin Club
is his first novel.