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My biggest, loudest, sloppiest thanks go to my main man, Thomas E. Giffels, for his patience and unfailing humor as he rolled with all of this and weirdly made it make sense.
As always, I owe gratitude beyond calculation to my agent, Daniel Greenberg, and to all the good people in the fur-lined vaults of Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.
I knew I was in good hands with John Glynn as an editor when he took one look and said this isn’t really a book about a coffin. He was right, and he guided with a careful hand and a big heart and made me feel good about everything even when it was hard.
Thanks as well to the entire Scribner family, especially Susan Moldow, Nan Graham, Roz Lippel, Colin Harrison, Sarah Goldberg, and Rosie Mahorter. A special shout-out to Lauren Lavelle, who has moved on in pursuit of her own dreams but not before helping me above and beyond with mine.
This book project began as a wee-hours conversation with Brant Rumble, who challenged and championed it and brought it into being, and who will always be a friend, no matter where he is.
Bob Ethington, the Max Perkins of Akron, is as generous a first reader as anyone could hope for. Yet again, I’m thankful for his trenchant insight and his tequila brotherhood.
The following people read versions of this manuscript and told me exactly what they thought. I thank them nonetheless: Andrew Borowiec, Chris Drabick, Gina Giffels, Chris Horne, Amy Keating, Chuck Klosterman, Eric Morris, Dave Rich, and Eric Wasserman. Dave Lucas provided crucial feedback and guidance, not to mention a rare and treasured friendship. I’m sorry I drank all your Jameson. But not really.
Many thanks to the editors who have offered opportunity and guidance (and money gigs) along the way, most notably: Yoni Appelbaum and David A. Graham at The Atlantic, Anne Trubek and Martha Bayne at Belt Publishing, Steve Gleydura at Cleveland Magazine, Dan Fierman at Grantland, Melanie Anagnos at Lumina, John Glassie at The New York Times Magazine, Eric Nuzum at WKSU, and all my former colleagues at the Akron Beacon Journal. Hallelujah in memoriam to Joan Rice, the calm in every storm.
Speaking of which, a substantial portion of Chapter 17, “Turning Fifty,” appeared originally on Grantland.com. Part of Chapter 23, “The Coffin Problem,” was adapted from an essay published as “The White Bedroom” in the journal Lumina.
I am profoundly indebted to the Puglia family, especially John’s sons, Jonathan and Sam—both now living in New York City—his parents, Gino and Carol, his brother, Anthony, and Anthony’s wife, Jennifer, and his sister, Sue, and her husband, Bill, for sharing John with me and trusting me with his story.
I am privileged to spend my days with interesting people, talking about books and writing. Thanks to all my students, colleagues, and friends in the University of Akron English Department and the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing, especially Robert Pope, Mary Biddinger, and Eric Wasserman.
As I am defined in every way by my life with Gina Giffels, I’ll thank her here on this page because I can, and then again tomorrow over coffee, and the next day and the next day, forever, unless I sleep in.
Finally, I’m deeply grateful to the University of Akron Faculty Research Fellowship and the Ohio Arts Council for generous support during the writing of this book.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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© TIM FITZWATER
DAVID GIFFELS is the author of The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt, nominated for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the memoir All the Way Home, winner of the Ohioana Book Award. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic.com, Parade, the Wall Street Journal, Esquire.com, Grantland, Redbook, and many other publications. He also was a writer for the MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head. He is an associate professor of English at the University of Akron, where he teaches creative nonfiction in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
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Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/David-Giffels
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ALSO BY DAVID GIFFELS
The Hard Way on Purpose:
Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt
All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House
Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!
(cowritten with Jade Dellinger)
Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron
(cowritten with Steve Love)
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First Scribner hardcover edition January 2018
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Jacket photographs: Flowers © Elenaleonova/Stock/Getty Images Plus; Hammer And Screwdriver © Tim Pannell/Mint Images/Getty Images; Level © Syahrel/Istock/Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-0594-4
ISBN 978-1-5011-0597-5 (ebook)
Photo on page 145 by Laurie Emery
Furnishing Eternity Page 19
