The jazz band’s visit to the Central Park Zoo (referred to in our story as the Central Park Menagerie) was a real event (as were the elephants), though the actual event took place in 1921. The poorly executed “experiment” (read, “publicity stunt”) scared some of the animals and enraged others. According to a reporter from the St. Petersburg Times, “Betsy and Jewel, the elephants, seemed to enjoy the music immensely, but Professor E. L. Davis of Columbia, pointed out that the pachyderms had probably followed a circus band. So there was a reason for their enjoyment that could be easily explained.” Modern zoo experts knew that, at only six acres, the zoo was too small to house large animals like elephants, rhinos, and lions, and so most of the larger animals were removed (although sea lions and bears remain). A major renovation in the 1980s transformed the Central Park Zoo into the beautiful, and essentially cageless, institution that exists today.
Finally, the discovery that elephants can communicate by producing low-frequency sounds is absolutely true . . . although it wasn’t determined until decades after Yanni’s fictional work with a baritone sax.
Acknowledgments
From Bill Schutt and J. R. Finch
The authors would like to thank Gillian MacKenzie for her hard work, great advice, and perseverance in getting our nightmares off the ground. Thanks also to Kirsten Wolff and Allison Devereux of the Gillian MacKenzie Agency.
We also thank Rebecca Lucash, Tom Pitoniak, and the entire production team at William Morrow.
Both of us are extremely grateful to Patricia J. Wynne for the amazing figures of Brazilian wildlife that grace our novel.
Special thanks also go out to James Cameron for his encouragement and kind words, and for The Years of Living Dangerously, his excellent documentary series about rainforests and other habitats threatened by human activity.
For their firsthand knowledge of the German WWII rocket programs, rocket-planes, and the world’s first true “space ship” (the Apollo lander), we thank Tom Kelly, George Skurla, and Al Munier (Northrop/Grumman), General Tom Stafford, Fred Haise, Jr., Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Harrison Schmitt, and Michael Collins.
Finally, we owe much to our talented editor, Lyssa Keusch at William Morrow, who had faith in us and contributed much to improving our tale. We knew that someone would fall in love with this story and we’re thrilled that it was you. See you in Tibet.
From Bill Schutt
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my friends and colleagues in the bat research community and at my favorite place in the world, the American Museum of Natural History. They include Ricky Adams, Wieslaw Bogdanowicz, Frank Bonaccorso, Mark Brigham, Patricia Brunauer (RIP), Deanna Byrnes, Catherine Doyle-Capitman, Betsy Dumont (who was there in Hell’s Gate with me), Neil Duncan, Nicole Edmison, the late Art Greenhall (whose hunch that Desmodus draculae might still be alive today served to fire his student’s imagination), “Uncle” Roy Horst, Tigga Kingston, Mary Knight, Karl Koopman (RIP), Tom Kunz, Gary Kwiecinski, Ross MacPhee, Eva Meade and Rob Mies (Organization for Bat Conservation), Shahroukh Mistry, Mike Novacek, Stuart Parsons, Scott Pedersen, Nancy Simmons (It’s good to know the Queen), Elizabeth Sweeny, Ian Tattersall, Merlin Tuttle, Rob Voss, and Eileen Westwig.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had several incredible mentors in my educational and professional life. None was more important than John W. Hermanson (Cornell University, Field of Zoology), who took a chance in 1990 by taking me on as his first Ph.D. student. John not only taught me to think like a scientist but also the value of figuring things out for myself.
A very special thanks to my close friend and coconspirator, Leslie Nesbitt Sittlow.
My dear friends Darrin Lunde and Patricia J. Wynne were instrumental in helping us develop this project from a vague idea into a finished novel.
A special thank-you goes out to my teachers, readers, and supporters at the Southampton College Summer Writer’s Conference, especially Bob Reeves, Bharati Mukherjee, Clark Blaise, and Helen Simonson.
At Southampton College (RIP) and LIU Post, thanks and gratitude to Ted Brummel, Scott Carlin, Matt Draud, Gina Famulare, Paul Forestell, Art Goldberg, Katherine Hill-Miller, Jeff Kane, Howard Reisman, and Steve Tettlebach. Thanks also to my LIU graduate students (Maria Armour, Aja Marcato, and Megan Mladinich), who often found themselves along for this sometimes bumpy ride.
Thanks and love also go out to Bob Adamo—my late best friend and the inspiration for the character Bob Thorn. Rock on, Dimi!