Impatient With Desire (19 page)
Leslie Fiedler believed in this book from its nascent beginning, and if he were alive, I know he would be delighted to see that it came to fruition. Sadly, more posthumous gratitude must be given to John Williams and Faith Gabelnick. As I struggled over the years with various incarnations, others who generously gave notes and support were Naomi Weisstein, Ann Petrie, J. R. Salamanca, Nancy Gabriel, Esther Broner, Rose Glickman, and Betsy Rapoport. To true and trusted friends and chance acquaintances, please know I’m grateful, because any work sustained over decades owes its continued existence to a legion of people who say the right word at the right time.
I am indebted to the Henry Huntington Library at San Marino, California, for permission to work with Tamsen Donner’s letters, particularly to Peter Blodgett, H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western Historical Manuscripts, and Jennifer Martinez, for their invaluable assistance; and to the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley for access to Patrick Breen’s diary.
Wikipedia was a useful source for information about specimen preservation and cupping. Wikimedia Commons has a trove of public domain botanical illustrations from the eighteenth century.
Thank you to Yaddo and to the MacDowell Colony for their nurturing space and spirit.
Thank you to my editor, Sarah Landis, the copy editor Susan M. S. Brown, Voice managing editor Claire McKean, and the
entire Voice/Hyperion team for their belief, enthusiasm, guidance, and care.
Luck came to me in the forms of William Lederer, whose dream inadvertently started me on this journey; Miller Williams, who told me I could be a writer; and Lisa Bankoff, dream agent.
And, finally, what can I say except thank you, again, to Roger Burton, Maria Burton, Jennifer Burton, Ursula Burton, Gabrielle Burton, and Charity Burton, who as artists and family never flagged in their enthusiasm and encouragement.
Map by Laura Hartman Maestro
The excerpts from Tamsen Donner’s letters in Dear Betsey, Hou 8 Donner, Tamsen to Elizabeth Poor, 1831–1832, June 29–Jan 26, and in Personal History for the Children, HM 58153, Donner,
T. to E. Poor, 1824, Nov.15, are reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Illustration of Phlox carnea, June 16, 1846, drawn by William Miller from The Botanical Cabinet (London 1817–1833), plate 711, engraving, 1820. File: Loddiges 711 Phlox carnea drawn by W Miller.jpg—Wikimedia Commons.
Illustration of Delphinium speciosum (“Shewy Delphinium”), May 12th 1846, The Botanical Register, Botanicus Digital Library, 1832, M. Hart. File: Delphinium_speciosum_1503.jpg—Wikimedia Commons.
IMPATIENT WITH DESIRE
. Copyright © 2010 Gabrielle Burton. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 Hyperion e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition © January 2010 ISBN 978-1-4013-9501-8
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