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As always, I am grateful to my deft and wonderful editor, Phyllis Grann, and to Lynn Nesbit, my literary agent of more than twenty years, and a very fine and supportive friend. I have had the benefit, as usual, of thoughtful readings of an earlier version of the manuscript by my dear friends George W. Jones, Jr., and Loretta Pleasant-Jones. I have also had the particular benefit of a quite detailed critique from my son, Andrew, whose comments caused me to rewrite significantly several chapters.
Andrew and my daughter, Leah, mentioned in all of my author’s notes over the decades, are grown now, but when I write, I still think of them and my wife Enola as my principal audience. My family has been God’s gift to me in this life, and for their love, and the opportunity to love them in return, I will be forever grateful.
—Cheshire, Connecticut
March 2014
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
STEPHEN L. CARTER is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University. His debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park, spent eleven weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and was followed by the nationwide best-sellers New England White, Palace Council, Jericho’s Fall, and, most recently, The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. His acclaimed nonfiction books include God’s Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics; Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy; and The Violence of Peace: America’s Wars in the Age of Obama. He lives with his family in Connecticut.