Angelica Lost and Found

Acknowledgements

‘Why San Francisco?’ you may ask. Well, when it turned out that Marco Renzetti was going there, Volatore had perforce to go along. I have never been to that city, so I had to rely on the goodwill of friends, the kindness of strangers, and Google. Along the way, people in two places allowed me, with gallantry well beyond the call of duty, to put fictionnal words in their real mouths. At the El Paso Museum of Art, curator Christian Gerstheimer, registrar Michelle Villa and preparator Nick Muñoz graced my last chapter with their presence. Michelle also gave me visual notes on El Paso, as did my son, Brom Hoban. At KDFC in San Francisco Bill Leuth asked Hoyt Smith on my behalf to allow similar fictionalisation, which he graciously agreed to.

I turned up suddenly in various San Francisco telephones and was unfailingly received with courtesy and co-operation. Becky Swanson, Wine Director at Delfina, told me not only about food and drink but also what music was being played in the restaurant. Annie Glyer at Noe Valley Pet Co. told me what Angelica would need for Irene Cat. Bill Hughes at Schoonmaker Marina told me about wind and tide in San Francisco Bay. Robert Tachetto at the Giant Camera gave me details of that obscura establishment.

Eli Bishop in San Francisco put in a lot of time and mileage to provide me with on-the-spot observation wherever needed. Endlessly patient and reliably accurate, he was my private eyes.

My wife Gundula helped me with fashion notes and all kinds of information I couldn’t get for myself.

Liz Calder read my first draft and her advice helped me to get the manuscript into better shape.

Bill Swainson patiently put up with my various inserts and revisions after the manuscript was delivered as final.

Phoebe Hoban gave me useful suggestions for amplifying the text in several places.

Dominic Power read successive drafts and cheered me on at our monthly lunches at Il Fornello.

I work without an outline or overall plan, flying by the seat of my pants. Sometimes the pants wear thin and my inertial guidance system loses its way. Jake Wilson, reading my pages as I worked, kept me more than once from walking over a cliff.

Barbara Reynolds’s wonderful rendering of Orlando Furioso into English in the Penguin Classics editon was, in its humour and joie de vivre, a constant inspiration.

RH

12 May 2010