Alice Hoffman - The Museum of Extraordinary Things

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.

Further reading for those who wish to know more about the history explored in The Museum of Extraordinary Things.

Denson, Charles. Coney Island Lost and Found . Ten Speed Press, 2002.

Hartzman, Marc. American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History’s Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers . Tarcher Penguin, 2006.

Kasson, John E. Amusing the Millions. Hill and Wang, 1978.

McCullough, Edo. Good Old Coney Island . Fordham University Press, 2000.

Argersinger, Jo Ann. The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

Ballon, Hillary, ed. The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811–2011 . Museum of the City of New York, 2012.

Benin, Leigh, Rob Linne, Adrienne Sosin, Joel Sosinsky with the Workers United (ILGWU) and HBO Documentary Films. Images of America: The New York City Triangle Factory Fire. Arcadia Publishing, 2011.

Ellis, Edward Robb. The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History. Basic Books, 1996, 2005.

Gray, Christopher, ed. Fifth Avenue: 1911 from Start to Finish in Historic Block-by-Block Photographs . Dover Publications, 1994.

Homberger, Eric. The Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of 400 Years of New York City’s History . Henry Holt, 1994; Holt Paperbacks, 2005.

Israelowitz, Oscar, and Brian Merlis. Manhattan’s Lower East Side in Vintage Photographs. Israelowitz Publishing, 2011.

Jackson, Kenneth T., and David S. Dunbar. Empire City: New York Through the Centuries . Columbia University Press, 2002.

Sanders, Ronald. The Lower East Side: A Guide to Its Jewish Past in 99 Photographs. Dover Books, 1980.

von Drehle, David. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America . Grove Press, 2003.

Ziegelman, Jane. 97 Orchard : An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement . HarperCollins, 2010.

Bann, Stephen, ed. Art and the Early Photographic Album . Yale University Press, 2011.

Burns, Ric, James Sanders, and Lisa Ades. New York: An Illustrated History. Knopf, 2011.

Gilman Paper Company Collection. The Waking Dream: Photography’s First Century. Henry Abrams, 1993.

Lavedrine, Bertrand, et al. Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation. Getty Conservation Institute, 2009.

Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography from 1839 to the Present. Museum of Modern Art, 2009.

Newhouse, Alana, ed. A Living Lens: Photographs of the Jewish Life from the Pages of the Forward . W. W. Norton, 2007.

For more, please visit AliceHoffman.com.

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Blackbird House

The Probable Future

Blue Diary

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Local Girls

Here on Earth

Practical Magic

Second Nature

Turtle Moon

Seventh Heaven

At Risk

Illumination Night

Fortune’s Daughter

White Horses

Angel Landing

The Drowning Season

Property Of

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Green Witch

Incantation

The Foretelling

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Indigo

Aquamarine

Survival Lessons

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Alice Hoffman

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