Sorcerer's Apprentice

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Naturally, I wish to thank the sympathetic editors who first published these stories. Credit for the poem in “Alēthia” belongs to filmmaker Olivia Tappan (WGBH, Boston), who tells me she heard it long ago in a philosophy class, and I am deeply indebted to the late John Gardner for microscopically analyzing three of these stories and generally scolding me for my mistakes. Credit is also due to my wife, Joan, for just about everything I can think of, to Seattle martial-arts teacher Gray Cassidy for critiquing “China,” and to Dr. Richard Hart of Long Island University for his many years of friendship and philosophical support.