The forty-five women Asa Mercer guided to Seattle were of equal character—intrepid, high-minded, and dedicated to the cause of suffrage. Each of them came to Seattle for reasons of her own, but each of them made significant and fascinating contributions to the history of Washington and the United States.
I hope this novel has done justice to their legacy.
My key research sources were as follows: personal interviews with Washington State historian Peri Muhich; the Washington State Historical Society’s Women’s History Consortium and Women in Washington collections; the research website of the Mercer Girls chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (SeattleMercerGirls.com); the secretary of state’s Legacy Washington website, which provided access to the historic newspaper Seattle Gazette; and the University of Oregon’s Historic Oregon Newspapers collection, which provided access to the New Northwest and an abundance of information about the suffrage movement in the region. Details of historic homes in Seattle, and the families who lived in them, were provided by the website of Seattle historian and author Paul Dorpat (PaulDorpat.com). To gain general knowledge of historic Seattle, I turned to the nonfiction books Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle by Murray Morgan; Doc Maynard: The Man Who Invented Seattle by William C. Speidel; Sons of the Profits by William C. Speidel; and Boren’s Block One: A Sinking Ship by Sidney S. Andrews.
For readers wishing to learn more about the real Mercer girls, I recommend you contact Peri Muhich (perim.tripod.com/brides.html/id3.html). Peri has gathered a truly amazing wealth of information about Asa Mercer and the women who traveled with him.
My sincere thanks are due to my acquisitions editor at Lake Union, Jodi Warshaw, who lit the fire under my seat to write this book. Thanks as well to Dorothy Zemach, my developmental editor, whose input made this book much stronger and more exciting. Thanks to Michelle Hope Anderson, my copy editor at Lake Union, who soldiered through all the em dashes. Thanks to the readers who have supported my career, and who expressed such excitement to read Mercer Girls whenever I mentioned the book on social media throughout its development and writing.
Thank you to the excellent guides of Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour, who bring history so vividly to life. If you are ever in Seattle, reader, I encourage you to take the Underground Tour and immerse yourself in Seattle’s unique and wonderful history. Remember to tip your tour guide.
My ultimate thanks and bottomless love to Paul Harnden, my husband. Every word I write is for him.
—L. H.
Friday Harbor, WA, 2015
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2014 Paul Harnden
Libbie Hawker writes historical and literary fiction featuring complex characters, with rich details of time and place. She is the author of eleven novels and lives in the beautiful San Juan Islands with her husband. Find more information about this author at LibbieHawker.com.
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