On the Day I Died

by Candace Fleming

  Edgar—I first read Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic tale “Berenice” when I was in sixth grade, the same year I encountered Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Both stories scared the socks off me. Both stories stuck with me through the years. And both stories have strong echoes in this one. So, too, does Chicago of 1870, a grim, coal-dust-covered world of robber barons and railroads, grain houses and meat packing plants. The description of Cyrus McCormick found in this story, as well as details about idyllic Prairie Avenue and the grimy city beyond, are based on English author Anthony Trollope’s impressions of Chicago during his visit in 1862. As for Edgar’s treatment at the hands of his own parents, sadly, it is based on truth. Back then, modern-day psychiatry did not exist. There was no help for people with mental illnesses. Those without families were simply locked up in insane asylums, while those with families—like Edgar—were often hidden away in attics and cellars, left to exist in a dark, lonely world.

  Tracy—While the character of Aunt Viola is fictional, the story of her fiancé’s murder is based on the true account of Irish gangster Dion O’Banion, bootlegger and florist to the Mob, who was shot with his arms full of roses after he’d double-crossed Al Capone. Dubbed the Murder Among the Flowers by local newspapers, it was one of the most sensational gangland hits of its day. Details of O’Banion’s elaborate funeral, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, were so gaudily delightful I simply had to use them for Pete Winter’s imaginary one. As for Capone himself, all the descriptions of his Lexington Hotel headquarters—right down to his lavender-tiled bathtub, his secret tunnels and those basement vaults where he supposedly stashed his gold—come from reports of the day. It should be noted, however, that an angry girlfriend did not cause the scars on Capone’s face. These were the result of his being attacked in a Brooklyn tavern after having insulted a customer’s sister. Scarface died in 1947 and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Every year, hundreds of visitors stream past his grave, leaving notes, cigars and, curiously, roses.

  CANDACE FLEMING believes that the spookiest stories begin with the truth. The setting of this book, White Cemetery, is a real graveyard near her home in Oak Park, Illinois, not far from Chicago.

  Fleming is the prolific and highly acclaimed author of numerous books for kids, including the nonfiction titles The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary, an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book and winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction; The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum, also an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book, as well as an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults; and Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart, which Kirkus Reviews called a “stunning look at an equally stunning lady.” In addition, Fleming is the author of the Aesop Elementary School books for middle-grade readers and the picture books Clever Jack Takes the Cake, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and Imogene’s Last Stand, which was a Junior Library Guild selection. You can visit the author at candacefleming.com.