The Geographer's Library

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
first thanks in this as in any worthwhile endeavor of mine belongs to
Zachary, Sally, Benjamin, and Rebecca Fasman, anchors and inspirations all.
While this book rests on the shoulders of too many books to mention, I
must acknowledge A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, by Lyndy Abraham,
as a particularly inspiring source.
Thanks to Peter Johnson, Sylvia Sellers-Garcia, and John Williams for
reading and improving my early drafts, and also to Mildred Newmark, my
eagle-eyed great-aunt, for catching several infelicities that otherwise would
have escaped me.
Jim Rutman and Meredith Blum are the principal reasons this book is
in your hands, rather than still in manuscript form at the back of my sock
drawer. To explain even in part what their support has meant to me would be
prohibitively long and mawkish, so: for Jim’s candor and decency, for Meredith’s
editorial sensitivity, and for their enthusiasm, faith, diligence and wit, I
am deeply grateful.
Thanks, too, to everyone at Penguin on both sides of the pond: Ann
Godoff and Simon Prosser; Sophie Fels, Liza Darnton, and Juliette Mitchell;
Bruce Giffords and Maureen Sugden. I could not have asked for better editorial
support.
In Moscow, the Moscow Times gave me a home long before I deserved one;
thanks and my deep respect are due to its entire talented staff, particulary to
Lynn Berry, Sunny Bosco, and Joy Ziegeweid.
Also in Moscow, I had the incalculable good luck to meet Jeffrey Tayler,
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