For my brother, forever Chuckie
This novel would never have come about without Kate Medina, my editor at Random House. Kate saw me as a novelist long before I did, and she never gave up on me—for years. There is no one like you in my life, Kate. I am so grateful.
Another person who insisted this novel must come to be is Gail Ross. Gail started out as my agent and is now the truest of friends, the kind who tells me what I need to hear. I’ve been told that’s not always easy to do, but apparently no one informed Gail. Lucky me.
Random House publisher Gina Centrello’s father worked for the railroads, which she told me on the day that she encouraged me to write about the people of our roots. It’s impossible to overstate the impact of our conversation that day. Thank you, Gina.
Many readers will recognize Random House Copy Chief Benjamin Dreyer as the author of the bestselling Dreyer’s English. I knew him long before that, as an editor, and in recent years, as a treasured friend. You bring the magic with you, dear Benjamin.
A team of other talented people with Random House helped shape this book and its future: Erica Gonzalez, Noa Shapiro, Avideh Bashirrad, Vincent La Scala, Susan M.S. Brown, Barbara Fillon, Jess Bonet, Susan Corcoran, Maria Braeckel, Karen Fink, and Allyson Pearl. Greg Mollica’s cover design captured the Erietown I know, in my heart.
Other people who had a role in this endeavor: Jane Hazen sent me her wonderful books about Higbee’s restaurant, the Silver Grille, which brought it to life for Ellie. Andover Public Library—in Ashtabula County, Ohio, which is surely near the mythical Erietown—allowed me to borrow, for years, several high school yearbooks from the 1950s; they were a valuable resource for names that were popular during that time in small-town Ohio. Many of my colleagues in Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications have been steadfast friends and wise counselors, especially Jacqueline Marino, Candace Bowen, Darlene Contrucci, Danielle Sarver Coombs, Amy Reynolds, Kevin Dilley, Janet Leach, Michele Ewing, Gene Shelton, Thor Wasbotten, Stephanie Smith, Cheryl Lambert, Tim Roberts, Susan Zake, Stefanie Moore, Dana White, Chance York, and Jeff Fruit.
To my students at Kent State: You fill my heart. I believe in you, always.
The love of friends kept me afloat. Thrity Umrigar gave me excellent advice when I was struggling midstory: Write a thousand words a day, and your characters will find you. Long before this book was finished, Karen Sandstrom drew a now-framed portrait of me clutching it with both hands. Susan Weidenthal Saltzman designed and made a one-of-a-kind necklace for me, its single charm engraved with ERIETOWN. Jennifer DiBrienza always knows when to show up. My sister-in-law Catherine Scallen—my sistah!—has kept me focused and strong; her husband, my brother-in-law Bob Brown, is the big brother I always wanted. My many talks with Marcia Brown, the newest writer in our family, reminds me of the mission of our work.
Some friends knew me long before Ellie and Brick McGinty came into my life. They tend to me. Jackie Cassara and Kate Matthews have helped me stay tethered to my biggest dreams through three decades of friendship. Gaylee McCracken has kept me healthy, and ever-mindful of our working-class roots. Buffy Filipell believed in me before I believed in myself. Michael Naidus was one of the first friends to read this book, and wrote such a thoughtful response that I printed it for safekeeping. For years, Sue Klein helped me brainstorm characters and the complications in their lives, without so much as a sigh of impatience. Maura Casey reminds me of who I am when I most need to hear it. Janet Newey stood in her kitchen and listened as I shared a story from Ellie’s life, her eyes filling with tears as she repeatedly asked, “And then what happened?” That’s when I knew.
For their many kindnesses and giant leaps of faith, I am grateful to Steve Levingston, Michael Croley, David Yontz, Peter Slevin, Dave Lucas, and Sarah Smarsh.
These women have blessed my life with their talents and their wisdom for years: Marva Register, Rosie Rosalina, and Olivia Comella Kaufman.
Three of our children—daughter Cait, son Andy, and daughter-in-law Stina—read an early draft of this novel. Their insights, gentle but unsparing, helped me cut what wasn’t working and build on what was. My sister Toni also read an early draft, and kept me honest. My sister Leslie gave me a treasure trove of photographs of our childhood in Ashtabula, Ohio, which helped me infuse this story with details of working-class life in the ’50s and ’60s.
All of the adult children in our family—Cait and Alex, Andy and Stina, Elizabeth and Patrick, and Emily and Matt—bring so much meaning to my life, which informs my work as a writer, and as a human being. They have also given us seven grandchildren, and I am now that grandma I used to mock. I live for you, sweet children.
Anyone who has ever loved a dog knows why I’m thanking Franklin and Walter. Good boys.
Sherrod Brown is the husband I didn’t dare imagine before he showed up in my life seventeen years ago. No one has believed in me more, and that has changed me. I will never forget the first time he sat across from me in our living room and started talking about Ellie and Brick as if they were real people.
I mean it every time I say this, Sherrod: You are my hero, too.
BY CONNIE SCHULTZ
The Daughters of Erietown
…And His Lovely Wife
Life Happens
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CONNIE SCHULTZ is a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and a professional-in-residence in the journalism school at Kent State University, her alma mater. She is the author of two memoirs, Life Happens and…And His Lovely Wife. Schultz lives in Cleveland with her husband, Sherrod Brown, and their rescue dogs, Franklin and Walter. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
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The Daughters of Erietown Page 39
