Acknowledgements

No one writes a book alone. I worked with Lori Anderson for 25 years and during that time she edited everything that I wrote. She makes everything that I write coherent, consistent, intelligent (as possible) and just better than I could do on my own. She is the best editor, communicator, strategist and marketer that I’ve ever known and she was the first person I turned to when starting this book. You’ll find her in the chapter, State Fair.

Annette Atkins, a professor emeritus of St. John’s University and the author of many essays, articles and books gave me early direction. She observed that this was a book about a relationship more than about food and so she encouraged me to get personal. Oh, and to write in the present tense.

Sue Leaf transformed this book. We have been friends since we were 14 and we’ve been through a lot together. She is a biologist, environmentalist and the author of six books among many other things. She thoughtfully observed, recommended, challenged, laughed, commiserated and inspired me as she read multiple drafts. Her book, Portage, was a great model for what I was trying to pull off. She also told me that editors don’t like sentences that start with “and”. And so I tried to avoid them. And sometimes I succeeded.

Linda Henneman has turned everything I’ve written over the past 30 years into something that someone wants to look at. She makes everything beautiful and coherent. Just by looking at her layouts people know what the copy is about.

Sonia Johnson is Eric’s niece and she has become mine. She is a poet, a copywriter, a true foodie, and being a generation younger than me, she made launching this book on Substack possible. She’s also served as the tech administrator as we launched a chapter every week. I mean, as she launched a chapter every week. I am forever grateful to her.

Thank you to all the readers who have made time to read A Long River. I have opened my life and my heart to you much more than I had intended and many of you have responded back with stories equally as personal and revealing. It has been the most rewarding part of launching this book.

Kathy Thurston offered unending administrative support to me while writing this book. It’s the stuff that keeps any project going and I appreciated it greatly.

Thank you to my cousin, Barbara Swenson, who is the family historian and researcher for my mother’s family history. And to my cousin, Hilma Pearson, who wrote, Nordstrom and Related Families, detailing my father’s family history.

My family is the beginning, middle and end of this book. As the youngest child they were my babysitters, teachers and role models. The longer I live the more that I realize how I am connected to every one of the five generations of my family that I’ve known. We are imprinted on each other through blood, diet and experience although my sisters still tell me I was adopted.

Eric’s family is my second family and they couldn’t be more different than my own. Still, the Mississippi River flows through us and we are becoming more alike all of the time.

Eric is at the center of this book and shows up on every page. I’m an extrovert and get more attention than he does but he’s always been more interesting than me. He says he’s the Alice. B. Toklas to my Gertrude Stein, but one look at his spice rack will tell you that he paints with more colors than I do. He inspires me and inspired this book.

This book is dedicated to Eric.