Fellow Travelers (37 page)
Authors: Thomas Mallon
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Having more than once described the writing of historical fiction as being a relief from the self, I was aware as I worked on
Fellow Travelers
of venturing further than usual into my own life’s preoccupations and fundamentals, however refracted they might be here by time and geography. I have, while writing this book, felt continually grateful to my parents, Arthur and Carol Mallon, and to my teachers, especially George Doolittle, Fran Walker, Elmer Blistein, and Robert Kiely.
Down the street from me in present-day Foggy Bottom, I must thank Steve Trachtenberg, Bill Frawley, and Faye Moskowitz of George Washington University, who contrived to keep the doors of Gelman Library open to me when I left teaching at GWU for a stint in the government. Most of this book was written in Gelman’s sixth-floor reading room, after many hours with the microfilmed Washington
Evening Star
a few stories below.
In obtaining and understanding transcripts of both the executive sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the open sessions of the Army–McCarthy hearings, I had the help of Dick Baker and Don Ritchie, longtime historians of the U. S. Senate, as well as Brian McLaughlin of the U.S. Senate Library. Sara Schoo, reference librarian at the Department of State, was also generous with her time. And thanks to Joe Mohr for a superbly informative tour of the Old Post Office tower on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Of the many dozens of histories and biographies I’ve consulted, I would single out the special importance of David K. Johnson’s
The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
(University of Chicago, 2004). Professor Rick Ewig’s article on the life and death of Senator Lester Hunt was helpful, as was the Web site of the History Office of the United States Army in Europe (USAREUR). Also on the Web: Richard A. Johnson’s recollections of basic training at Fort Dix.
I would like to thank Mel Levine, formerly of the U.S. State Department, for advice about Hawkins Fuller’s career path, and my friend Priscilla McMillan, whose writings and conversation have illuminated my knowledge of the 1950s and much else. And I’m grateful to Jim Steen for local Washington lore.
I hasten to point out—to those mentioned above and to the reader—that I have taken my usual small liberties with historical fact, and more than my usual license with historical figures.
My editor, Dan Frank, has again bolstered and challenged me in all the ways I’ve tried not to take for granted in our long association. He has my deepest gratitude. The enthusiasm shown toward this project by Sloan Harris, my agent, has been both sustaining and delightful.
Chris Bull has been my own proof of the axiom—and showtune lyric—that if you become a teacher by your pupils you’ll be taught. In two decades of argument about politics, sex, and culture, he has usually outshone me in logic, and always in bravery.
I cannot imagine life in Washington without John McConnell, the gold standard for public service and devoted friendship.
And I cannot imagine life anywhere without Bill Bodenschatz.
THOMAS MALLON
Washington, D.C.
November 13, 2006
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas Mallon is the author of seven novels, including
Bandbox, Henry and Clara,
and
Dewey Defeats Truman.
Among his nonfiction books are studies of diaries (
A Book of One’s Own
), plagiarism (
Stolen Words
), and the Kennedy assassination (
Mrs. Paine’s Garage
). A frequent contributor to
The New Yorker
,
The Atlantic Monthly
, and other magazines, he lives in Washington, D.C.
BOOKS BY THOMAS MALLON
FICTION
Arts and Sciences
Aurora 7
Henry and Clara
Dewey Defeats Truman
Two Moons
Bandbox
Fellow Travelers
NONFICTION
Edmund Blunden
A Book of One’s Own
Stolen Words
Rockets and Rodeos
In Fact
Mrs. Paine’s Garage
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 by Thomas Mallon
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.: Excerpt from “Monotonous,” lyrics by June Carroll, music by Arthur Siegel. Copyright © 1952 (Renewed) by Chappell & Co., Inc.; excerpt from “No Love, No Nothin,’” lyrics by Leo Robin, music by Harry Warren. Copyright © 1943 (Renewed) WB Music Corp. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. · Random House, Inc., and Faber and Faber Ltd.: Excerpt from “The More Loving One,” from
Collected Poems
by W. H. Auden. Copyright © 1957 by W. H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc., and Faber and Faber Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mallon, Thomas, [1951–]
Fellow travelers / Thomas Mallon.
p. cm.
1. Nineteen fifties—Fiction. 2. Washington (D.C.)—Fiction. 3. United States—Politics and government—1953–1961—Fiction. I. Title.
PS
3563.
A
43157
F
45 2007 813'.54—dc22 2006024586
eISBN: 978-0-375-42516-5
v3.0