I am grateful to be published by HarperCollins, led by the great Brian Murray and my champion, Michael Morrison. Jonathan Burnham is a publisher with exquisite taste and clear vision. He encouraged me to write this novel, and gave me the best tools to do the job. He is also good-looking and British, two of my favorite food groups.
My beloved editor, Lee Boudreaux, has skill and heart, a rare combination. This is our thirteenth book together and I don’t know what I would do without her. She is gentle and strong, and so gifted. Abigail Holstein is a treasure, and takes care of the details effortlessly. I am indebted also to the great marketing team led by the razor-sharp Kathy Schneider, including Leah Wasielewski, Mark Ferguson, Katie O’Callaghan, Danielle Plafsky, and Tom Hopke, Jr.
The Harper publicity team gets the word out beautifully: thank you, Tina Andreadis, (Greek girls rule), Kate Blum, (the best), Sydney Sherman, Alberto Rojas, Joseph Papa, and Jamie Brickhouse (yes, Jamie I will go . . . there). Thank you, Camille McDuffy and Grace McQuade. Virginia Stanley, queen of the libraries, never fails me. My gratitude also to Kayleigh George and Annie Mazes.
The sparkling design and production group, who created this glorious cover art and interior design, includes Amanda Kain, Robin Biardello, Cindy Achar, Lydia Weaver, Miranda Ottewell, Leah Carlson-Stanisic, and Eric Levy. The team who gets the books into your hands via sales includes the fabulous Josh Marwell, Andrea Rosen, Jeanette Zwart, Doug Jones, Carla Clifford, Kristin Bowers, Brian Grogan, Jeff Rogart, Mark Hillesheim, Caitlin Rollfes, Erin Gorham, and Diane Jackson. Thank you, Amy Baker, Erica Barmash, Regina Eckes, and Jennifer Hart (who goes the extra five miles).
At William Morris Endeavor, thank you and my love always to the gamine powerhouse: Suzanne Gluck. The gamine’s team is the best: Caroline Donofrio, Eve Attermann, and Becca Kaplan. I adore Nancy Josephson, who has been in my life as long as my sisters, reads as soon as she gets a draft, and provides unconditional support when it’s most needed. Alicia Gordon drives the movie bus splendidly.
Thank you and love to: Sarah Ceglarski, Shekar Sathyanarayana, Erin Malone, Tracy Fisher, Pauline Post, Eugenie Furniss: (the elegant duchess), Claudia Webb, Cathryn Summerhayes, Becky Thomas, Jamie Quiroz, Raffaella de Angelis, Amanda Krentzman (Global), Graham Taylor, Casey Carroll, Michelle Bohan, Matt Smith, Juliet Barrack, Stephanie Ward, Ellen Sushko, Joe Austin, Carrie Brody, Sarah Ceglarksi, Jessica Lubben, Natalie Hayden, Philip Grenz, Arielle Datz, and Brandon Guzman.
In Movieland, thank you to the brilliant producer Larry Sanitsky, Claude Chung and the team at the Sanitsky Company. My love and thanks to Lou Pitt and Michael Pitt. I will be ever grateful to Ann Godoff for opening the door to my literary career. Thank you to the fabulous Jackie Levin who has been so kind to me over the years.
At Simon and Schuster UK, my love to my publisher, Ian Chapman, my divine editor, Suzanne Baboneau, and the irreplaceable, unforgettable Nigel Stoneman.
Thank you, Allison Van Groesbeck (you’re a star); Kelly Meehan (so talented and now engaged!); Antonia Trigiani, queen of the gift shop; Gina Casella, our fearless leader and fabulous president of our tours; Nikki Padilla, who leads the walking tours with panache and style.
My love and gratitude to Jake and Jean Morrissey, Mary Murphy, Gail Berman, Debra McGuire, Cate Magennis Wyatt, Nancy Bolmeier Fisher, Carol and Dominic Vechiarelli, Jim and Mary Deese Hampton, Suzanne and Peter Walsh, Heather and Peter Rooney, Ian Moffitt, Anne Weintraub, Gene Stein, Aaron Hill and Susan Fales-Hill, Kate Benton Doughan and Jim Doughan, Ruth Pomerance and Rafael Prieto, Joanna Patton and Bill Persky, Angelina Fiordellisi and Matt Williams, Michael La Hart and F. Todd Johnson, Richard and Dana Kirshenbaum, Hugh and Jody Friedman O’Neill, Rosalie Ciardullo, Dolores and Dr. Emil Pascarelli, Sharon Hall, Mary Ellen Gallagher Gavin, Rosanne Cash, Liz Welch Tirell, Rachel Cohen DeSario, Charles Randolph Wright, Constance Marks, Mario Cantone and Jerry Dixon; Nancy Ringham Smith, Sharon Watroba Burns, Dee Emmerson, Elaine Martinelli, Kitty Martinelli (Vi and the girls), Sally Davies, Sister Karol Jackowski, Jane Cline Higgins, Beth Vechiarelli Cooper (my Youngstown boss), Max and Robyn Westler, John Searles, Robin Kall, Gina Vechiarelli, Barbara and Tom Sullivan, Brownie and Connie Polly, Catherine Brennan, Joe O’Brien, Greg D’Alessandro, Jena and Charlie Corsello, Karen Fink, Beata and Steven (the Warrior) Baker, Todd Doughty and Randy Losapio, Craig Fisse, Anemone and Steve Kaplan, Christina Avis Krauss and her Sonny, Joanne Curley Kerner, Bina Valenzano, Christine Freglette, Veronica Kilcullen, Lisa Rykoski, and Iva Lou Johnson. Cousin Evangeline “Eva” Palermo, wife, mother, and teacher, turned ninety as I wrote this book, and if you want to be an active, amazing ninety-year-old, check out my cousin Eva.
Thank you Michael Patrick King, the chairman of my mental health board. Thank you for being true and being you. Cynthia Rutledge Olson, I’m putting in an 800 number so people can call you with their problems worldwide. You will have help: Mary Testa can run the switchboard, while Wendy Luck passes out pamphlets; thank you both. Thank you Elena Nachmanoff and Dianne Festa, my honorary sisters.
Many months of research went into the history woven through this book. I am indebted to the experts who guided the process and did the heavy lifting. Thank you
Anthony Tamburri and Joseph Sciorra of the Calandra Institute, experts in Italian American history including life in Little Italy and turn-of-the-century immigration. My dear friend Betsy Brazis was generous, specific, and selflessly on call for her knowledge of the Iron Range. My mother, Ida, as always, gave priceless insight into life with her parents in Chisholm.
My gratitude to Nadia Sammarco for her insight into the Metropolitan Opera in New York City; Richie Sammarco for his memories of the opera; the (divine) Sisters of the RSCJ (Religieuses de Sacre Coeur de Jesus), including Sister Angela Bayo, Sister Judy Garson, and Sister Maura Keleher, Susan Burke-O’Neal at the Convent of the Sacred Heart; archivist John Pennino at the Metropolitan Opera; Andrea Spolti, my cousin an expert of all things Schilpario; and the great writer/editor Veda Ponikvar of The Chisholm Tribune-Press, Chisholm, Minnesota.
Samantha Rowe did an amazing job with the history of the Milbank House, Otto Kahn, and James Burden mansions, Ellis Island, and life at the turn of the last century. Luca Delbello researched use of language and currency. The Italian translations in the text were provided by Professor Dorina Cereghino.
During the final phases of writing this book, I lost some dear friends and family that I hope to honor here. Michele O’Callaghan Togneri, Tommy’s beloved wife, was a total original. She was a wonderful mother to Julia, T.J., and Mia. Tommy told me that my books were always on Michele’s nightstand. She will always be in my heart. My cousin Cathy Peters was a fabulous wife to Joe and mother to Lauren and Joey; Rebecca Wright Long from Big Stone Gap was my honorary sister (along with her sister Theresa Bledsoe), and would drive hours to come to a reading; she was also a beautiful wife to Stephen and mother to Adam and Christina. The great Theo Barnes, actor, playwright, and director began his career at the Judson Poets Theater, and when I moved to New York he took me under his wing and shared his every talent to encourage mine. Abner “Abbey” Zalaznick was a wonderful husband and father who took such delight in the world it was infectious. Lily Badger, our daughter’s classmate at Chelsea Day School was a beautiful girl, along with her sisters Grace and Sarah. Madonna and Matthew are their loving parents, and we will never forget their three beauties.
It is fitting that many of the names in this novel came from donations made to the good nuns at the Caroline House in Connecticut. They do all manner of good works for immigrants; most important, they teach them to read and write English. My grandparents would be thrilled that elements of their story were woven with the current generation of immigrants. In that spirit, I’d like to thank my family, all of us descendents of strong, hardworking immigrants with big dreams.
Finally, on the dedication page, Don Andrea Spada, signed the photograph of himself, taken in the seminary in 1930. He wrote to my grandmother Lucia: For my dear si
ster in America with my immense affection always. He was able to visit his sister in America many times over the years, which thrilled her. When we visited him on the mountain fifty years later, the walls of the family home were filled with photographs of us, his family in America. No ocean, country, or war kept the Spada family from remaining close and connected. The love was always there and it endures evermore, just like the mountain.
About the Author
ADRIANA TRIGIANI is an award-winning playwright, television writer, and documentary filmmaker. The author of the bestselling Big Stone Gap series; Very Valentine; Brava, Valentine; Lucia, Lucia; The Queen of the Big Time; and Rococo, she has also written the bestselling memoir Don’t Sing at the Table as well as the young adult novels Viola in Reel Life and Viola in the Spotlight. Her books have been published in thirty-six countries around the world. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.
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Also by Adriana Trigiani
fiction
Brava, Valentine
Very Valentine
Home to Big Stone Gap
Rococo
The Queen of the Big Time
Lucia, Lucia
Milk Glass Moon
Big Cherry Holler
Big Stone Gap
young adult fiction
Viola in Reel Life
Viola in the Spotlight
nonfiction
Don’t Sing at the Table
Cooking with My Sisters (coauthor)
Credits
Cover photograph by Louise Dahl-Wolfe,
untitled, n.d., as it appeared in the
September 1949 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
© 1989 Arizona Board of Regents.
Collection The Museum at FIT
© The Museum at FIT
Cover illustrations © Dmiskv/Shutterstock
Images and Natali777/Shutterstock Images
Copyright
THE SHOEMAKER’S WIFE. Copyright © 2012 by The Glory of Everything Company. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN: 978–0–06–125709–4 (Hardcover)
EPub Edition MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780062098061
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