The Barter (32 page)

The author wishes to acknowledge her debt to, and admiration for, the late scholar Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov of the University of Texas at Austin, whose many works on German Texas (especially his book
German Seed in Texas Soil
) inspired and informed portions of this story. Thanks are also due to Eleanor Arnold and the Indiana Committee for the Humanities for their wonderful oral history project
Memories of Hoosier Homemakers
, and to the late midwestern nature writer Rachel Peden, whose beautiful, funny, deeply human writing about farm life is a treasure worth seeking out.

Thanks also to Betsy Lerner, Denise Roy, Andrew Roth, Amy Shearn, Sarah Gerkensmeyer, Melanie Lefkowitz, and Amanda Touchton for their encouragement and to Ryan Plumley, Marie Muschalek, Stephen and Ursula Baniak, Demetri Detsaridis, Fawn Horvath, and Matthew Daddona for their timely
help.

Siobhan Adcock received her MFA from Cornell University, and her fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines. She has worked as a writer and editor for
Epicurious,
iVillage,
and
The Knot,
among other digital publishers. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1864, E. P. Dutton & Co. bought the famous Old Corner Bookstore and its publishing division from Ticknor and Fields and began their storied publishing career. Mr. Edward Payson Dutton and his partner, Mr. Lemuel Ide, had started the company in Boston, Massachusetts, as a bookseller in 1852. Dutton expanded to New York City, and in 1869 opened both a bookstore and publishing house at 713 Broadway. In 2014, Dutton celebrates 150 years of publishing excellence. We have redesigned our longtime logotype to reflect the simple design of those earliest published books. For more information on the history of Dutton and its books and authors, please visit
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