going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief-by-lawrence-wright-2

our deadline approached to fetch L. Ron Hubbard’s military records from the archives
there. Lynn Oberlander, the magazine’s lawyer, was a stalwart ally, undaunted by the
legal team arrayed by the church and by certain celebrities who were mentioned in the
article. Ann Goldstein, the magazine’s copy chief, did her usual careful and respectful
job. Nick Traverse and Kelly Bare labored to put the thousands of pages of documents
on the Cloud—a highly experimental procedure at this old-school magazine—so that we
could all have access to the same material simultaneously. I want to pay particular
tribute to the New Yorker fact-checking department, headed by Peter Canby. Jennifer
Stahl was the lead checker, spending six months full-time on the piece; her
scrupulousness was inspiring, and she commanded the respect of everyone who dealt
with her. Tim Farrington also worked intensely on the article. Eventually, a good
portion of the department pitched in, including Nandi Rodrigo, Mike Spies, Katia
Bachko, and even Peter himself. To be supported by such truly professional colleagues
means so much.
Although the Church of Scientology was not a willing partner in the eort to write
this book, I want to thank the spokespeople I worked with—Tommy Davis, Jessica
Feshbach, and Karin Pouw—for responding to what must have seemed an endless
stream of queries from me and the fact-checkers. I have no doubt that they will quarrel
with the results, but the book is more accurate because of their participation, however
reluctant that might have been. Initially, Davis permitted me to speak with several
active members of the church, but the door closed on that opportunity. I was never
allowed to talk to David Miscavige or any of the upper-tier executives I requested. (As I
would learn, many of them were sequestered and not available in any case.) A reporter
can only talk to people who are willing to talk to him; whatever complaints the church
may have about my reporting, many limitations can be attributed to its decision to
restrict my interactions with people who might have provided more favorable
testimony.
Robert Jay Lifton did me the honor of reading this book in manuscript and providing
his insights, especially on the issue of thought reform. R. Scott Appleby helped me place
Scientology in the context of other world religions. My friend Stephen Harrigan also
commented on an early draft, as he has done on many occasions. A writer depends on
such willing friends.
My editor at Knopf, Ann Close, has been through ve books with me—a marvelous
relationship that has now spanned a quarter of a century. For this book, the Knopf team
labored under a stressful deadline, and I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary
eorts of Anke Steinecke, legal counsel; Katherine Hourigan, the managing editor; Paul
Bogaards, the director of publicity; Kim Thornton, the publicist for this book; Kevin
Bourke, the production editor; Claire Bradley Ong, the production manager; and
Cassandra Pappas, the designer. I also thank my agent, Andrew Wylie, for his sage
counsel.
When I began writing the book, I hired two young and talented fact-checkers, Axel
Gerdau and Lauren Wolf. They were both interested in long-form journalism, and I
thought I might be able to teach them something about that; so, one evening a week, I