The Portable Veblen

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you very much Rosemary Ahern, Wallace Baine, John Blades, John Chandler, Carole Conn, Donka Farkas, Peter Farkas, Karen Joy Fowler, Syed A. Haider, Deborah Hansen, Richard Huffman, Kathryn Kefauver, Richard Lange, Kat Meads, Liza Monroy, Roberta Montgomery, Micah Perks, Jory Post, Melissa Sanders-Self, Catherine Segurson, Paul Skenazy, Patricia Stacey, Peggy Townsend, Alfredo Vea, Vito Victor, Dan White, Sally Wolfe, and Jill Wolfson, for your invaluable contributions to my spirits and these pages.

To Judy Kmetko at the Lane Medical Library at Stanford, Tom Lamb III at Carleton College, and Jay Rorty, thank you for your help with my research. Thanks to S. Brian Willson and Becky Leuning of Portland for our enlightening conversation about the care of military veterans. Sarah Warner Vik and Sigmund Vik of Trondheim, Norway—tusen takk! I also appreciated the use of the Veblen archives at the University of Chicago and the congenial atmosphere at the McHenry Library at UC Santa Cruz.

Thank you to C. Michael Curtis for publishing an excerpt of this novel in The Atlantic and for the duration of his encouragement. Thanks also to the Center for Cultural Innovation, Silicon Valley Creates, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation for their generosity.

Thank you to Emily Forland for embracing this novel without hesitation and for all your great ideas and camaraderie since. Ed Park, thank you for so many things, including being exactly the right editor for this book; collaborating with you has been an honor and a pleasure. Thank you very much also to Penguin Press, Ann Godoff, and Scott Moyers for such wholehearted support and to Juliana Kiyan, Matt Boyd, Annie Badman, Caitlin O’Shaughnessy, Ruth Liebmann, Robert Belmont, Wendy Pearl, Justin Goodfellow, and Megan Sullivan for all your help.

Talking to Bart Cox about old Palo Alto was one of the best parts about this, and he, too, is greatly missed. As is Isabel Cox, whose house on Tasso Street I remember so well.

Emily Cox and Christopher Wrench, thank you for your help with the images and for your love and unstinting goodwill.

Thank you to Steve for everything that made this possible. Nick, it was delightful to discuss the writings of Bakunin, Žižeck, and the Situationists with you, and then apply them to The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. Stuart, it was you who put me on track originally, and our many talks about animals, Teslas, business and consumer issues, translation, and the fine points of storytelling inspired me especially.