The Museum of Extraordinary Things

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are some years when everything seems to change all at once. 1911 is such a year. I have tried to do justice to this time and to New York City. Although I grew up on Long Island, I spent a great deal of my childhood in Brooklyn and in Chelsea and have lived in Chelsea on and off for most of my adult life. I have lived elsewhere, but at all times I have seen New York for what it is, a wonder of the world.

This book is dedicated to my grandfathers, Michael Hoffman and Chaim Klurfeld. One began his working life in a pie factory at the age of twelve, then became one of the first electricians to light up Brooklyn, before going on to help bring modern Chelsea to life during and after the Depression. The other was a union man, a member of the ILGWU and the Workmen’s Circle who was dedicated to the rights of working men and women. His writings, some of which were published in the newspaper the Forward, focused on the labor movement and on his childhood in Poland. Much like my character Eddie, my grandfather’s political conversion began in a single afternoon when he heard the factory owner’s children playing—in his case, swimming in a lake on a hot summer day beside the factory where he worked twelve-hour days at the age of eight.

I have tried to present the two fires that frame this book—the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the Dreamland Fire—as best I could within a historical context while using imaginary lives and fates. Characters who are based on real people, including Monk Eastman, the gangster, and Abraham Hochman, the Jewish mystic, are real enough, and therefore their characters mirror the facts as closely as possible, but they, too, have been viewed through the glass of my imaginings.

A special thanks to Rob Linne from the Adelphi University School of Education, who first suggested I write an article commemorating the anniversary of the Triangle Fire. In doing the research for the piece, published in the Los Angeles Times, I was also beginning this novel and reconnecting with my own personal history as a New Yorker.

Although any historical errors are my own, I extend my deepest gratitude to the experts who were kind enough to read the manuscript and offer their comments. Many thanks to Suzanne Wasserman, historian, filmmaker, and director of the Gotham Center at the City College of New York for her support, her insights, and her knowledge about the Lower East Side. My gratitude to Annelise Orleck, author and professor of history at Dartmouth College, who took the time to carefully read the novel and offer suggestions and whose specialties in women’s history, political history, Jewish history, and the history of American radicalism made her comments invaluable. Last, my heartfelt thanks to Charles Denson, author and executive director of the Coney Island History Project for his thoughtful reading of the manuscript. As a great fan of his writings and the work he has done on behalf of Coney Island, I was honored to count him among my early readers.

To Nan Graham, my brilliant editor, and to Susan Moldow, my beloved publisher, who have both changed my writing and my life. I could not be more fortunate or more grateful.

Gratitude to Carolyn Reidy for her continuing support, which means so much to me.

Many thanks to Roz Lippel for helping me feel at home at Scribner.

To Suzanne Baboneau, publisher of Simon & Schuster UK, deep gratitude for championing my books in the UK, and for so much support, then and now.

Thank you to Whitney Frick for her sharp eye, attention to detail, and care taken in her reading of this novel. Thanks to Kara Watson for her kind help in readying the manuscript for publication.

Thank you to Susan Brown for her copyediting knowledge and insight.

Many thanks to Katherine Monaghan for her invaluable assistance before, after, and during publication. To Camille McDuffie, who has helped bring many of my books into the world, many thanks for her grace and good advice.

To Maggie Stern, for years of invaluable friendship.

To Tom Martin, for always being my first reader and the first person I turn to.

A most special thank-you to Ron Bernstein, dear friend and agent from the beginning, and to Amanda Urban, for her generous friendship and wise counsel.

Thank you to the Lyceum Agency.

To everyone at the Elaine Markson Agency, especially Gary Johnson, many thanks for many years of working together.

And to Elaine Markson, I offer my deepest gratitude and love. Words cannot express my thanks or begin to list all you have given me, as an agent and a friend. I would never have been here without you.