ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BOOK WRITING IS MOSTLY a solitary pursuit, but this particular project brought me partway out of my shell. If it weren’t for E. LaRoche, I might never have written the earlier essay that led to this book. I owe thanks to E. Somers at the Missouri Review, as well as to C. Mason, both of whom noticed the snail story when it was barely hatched. When I began to read about gastropods, I did not know I would fall in love with malacology literature. As I wove thousands of scientific words into my personal snail observations, M. Porter’s excellent developmental editing skills, particularly her fearless and flawless insight as to what to cut, were invaluable. Undaunted by my endless revisions, M. took the project under her wing, reading every draft and surviving the feat miraculously.
Great appreciation and respect go to L. Osterbrock, D. Dwyer, and P. Blanchard; each of them brought editorial savvy to my pages and responded with good humor even when hearing from me out of the blue and sometimes at unusual hours; it is a lucky writer who has editorial friends with perfectionist streaks in different time zones. When I thought I had finished the manuscript, J. Babb smartly nudged me into doing one last editorial pass, which turned out to be essential. Thanks to L. Babb for her response on a pivotal chapter.
The following friends read one or more drafts, and their terrific questions, thoughts, and suggestions helped me shape and deepen the story: K. Adams, D. Smith, A. Levine, D. Graham, D. R. Warren, P. Kamin, L. Fisher, and S. Lester. Astute advice and support came at various junctures from J. Hamilton, T. Coburn, and J. Babb. Thanks to the MacDowell Colony and the Vermont Studio Center, and my heartfelt gratitude to S. Tullberg for making impossible dreams happen.
Timothy A. Pearce, who must have been a gastropod in his past life, is a remarkable malacologist. He answered zillions of questions with astonishing patience, thoughtfulness, curiosity, and infinite knowledge. Every time I glided too far into gastropod territory and got stuck, Tim came to my rescue. Great appreciation to the biologist Ken Hotopp, who knows just where to find a New England Neohelix albolabris and exactly what it might be up to at any given moment. I was lucky to have Tim and Ken as snail consultants. The thought-provoking, occasionally startling, and sometimes funny conversations and correspondence I had with them expanded my understanding of these small animals and their place in the world. If any error in malacology information has found its way into these pages, it is most certainly mine, not theirs.
Gratitude to the wetlands ecologist A. Calhoun for her early avid reading of the manuscript; to K. Vencile for his fascinating feedback; to Dr. R. Smith for his infectious-disease knowledge and his interest in malacology; to the staff at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension; and to the wonderfully kind and always helpful librarians at my local library.
I am also indebted to the nineteenth-century naturalists whose words enrich these pages. They observed every nuance of snail behavior, and their lyrical writings are unconstrained by today’s more technical scientific language.
A special thanks to N. Glassman, who found the snail and without whom this story would never have happened. Appreciation to H. Schuman for sharing his love of words and to J. Miles for sharing her love of the natural world. For fulfilling a lifelong longing for island writing, I owe thanks to the Websters. To Kathryn Davis: you gave me the gift of my own words—few gifts are as great.
My agent Ellen Levine and my editor Elisabeth Scharlatt believed in a very small story about an even smaller creature, and despite the hurried pace of the publishing field, they had the patience to wait for the final draft. Thanks, also, to the good staff at Algonquin Books and Workman Publishing; to R. Careau for her excellent, meticulous, and thoughtful copyediting and fact checking; to L. Lieberman for his wise counsel; and to C. Ferland, M. Schuman, K. Bray, and C. Guillette.
A number of people helped with language translations: W. Smith and L. Hill (Chinese); A. McCormick and C. Stancioff (French); T. Hayes (Latin); Anna Booth and Erica Walch (Italian); and K. Hardy (Wabanaki). Many of my questions on the haiku of Issa and Buson were thoughtfully answered by D. G. Lanoue and J. Reichhold.
Thanks to Kathy Bray for her exquisite soft pencil half-tone illustrations, which reveal the private everyday moments in a snail’s life. Working with Kathy was a rare and wonderful opportunity. My gratitude to Susan Brand for her lovely cover snail and to D. R. Warren for kindly filming an adventurous Neohelix albolabris.
A heartfelt thanks to all the folks who have accompanied me throughout my journey through illness or joined me along the way for the side trips. Please know how appreciated you are and that this book would not have happened without you. Some of you have a rare ability to understand and accept the invisible, and I could not have survived without that support: S. Tullberg, D. Lamparter, S. Spinney, L. Maria, A. Swan, and two truly exceptional physicians, Dr. C. Rosen and Dr. D. Bell.
Lastly, to all the creatures who at one point or another have shared their lives with me, including the snail and its 118 offspring, my deep Homo sapiens thanks.
