Authors: Myla Goldberg
Wickett's Remedy (46 page)
Usually the paperback edition of a book can be made from the hardcover edition without any complications,
but because the format of
Wickett’s
is unusual, the type for the paperback edition needed to be reset, which presented the unique opportunity to make a certain number of revisions. The spirit of the book and its story line remain unchanged, but certain threads are developed a little further. Scenes on Gallups Island that had been implied in the hardcover edition are made explicit in the paperback; other scenes that had been curtailed are extended. The revised material deepens Lydia’s experience on Gallups Island, as well as her relationships with Percival Cole and Frank Bentley. It also clarifies the subtle interplay of forces that bring Quentin Driscoll’s story to its conclusion.
The best thing a book can do is provide an accurate portrait of the writer’s intentions, abilities, and intent at the time of its writing. The paperback edition of
Wickett’s
is the portrait I was aiming for. Thank you for taking a look.
—Myla Goldberg
March 2006
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, OCTOBER 2006
Copyright
© 2005,
2006 by Myla Goldberg
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2005.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Doubleday edition as follows:
Goldberg, Myla.
Wickett’s remedy/Myla Goldberg.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Irish American women—Fiction. 2. Influenza epidemic, 1918–1919—Fiction. 3. Patent medicines—Fiction.
4. Boston (Mass.)—Fiction. 5. Widows—Fiction. I. Title
PS3557.O35819W53 2004
813’.54—dc22
2005048103
eISBN: 978-0-307-49317-0
v3.0