The Jodi Picoult Collection #2 Read online

  Henry Perkins died in 1956, just when the structure of DNA had been discovered. Reproductive technology and genetic diagnosis are the new face of eugenics. And in a strange case of history repeating itself, Human Genome Project research continues to be done in Cold Spring Harbor, New York—the site, in 1910, of America’s newly formed Eugenics Record Office at the Station for Experimental Evolution.

  For those interested in finding out more about eugenics, I have enclosed a bibliography of books and documents that were instrumental to me during the writing of this book. I would also like to thank Fred Wiseman, Charlie Delaney, and Marge Bruchac for enlightening me from the Abenaki point of view; Mike Hankard and Brent Reader for initial Abenaki translations, and Joseph Alfred Elie Joubert from Odonak Indian Reservation, P. Que., Canada, for making corrections to the Abenaki phrases in the text, as well as teaching me proper pronunciation. I am also indebted to Kevin Dann, who in 1986 recovered the ESV documents, made sure the world stood up and took note, and then let me explore his files and his own imaginings in order to create a structure upon which I could then build my own. And finally, I am grateful to Nancy L. Gallagher, who graciously taught me what she knew from her research for Breeding Better Vermonters: The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State, and whose command of the facts was invaluable. Readers interested in exploring this topic further should read that book or visit her Web site, “Vermont Eugenics: A Documentary History” (www.uvm.edu/~eugenics). I made liberal use of her insights and documents, which provided the historical materials for my novel.

  Without the work of these people, I never could have completed my own.

  Jodi Picoult

  July 2002

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Anderson, Elin. We Americans: A Study of Cleavage in an American City. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1937.

  Bandler, James. “The Perkins Solution.” Vermont Sunday Magazine, Rutland Herald, April 9, 1995.

  Dann, Kevin. “Playing Indian: Pageantry Portrayals of the Abenaki in the Early Twentieth Century.” From a talk presented at a UVM conference, Burlington, Vermont, November 1999.

  Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York. “Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement.” Online resource, www.eugenicsarchive.org.

  Eugenics Survey of Vermont and the Vermont Commission on Country Life. Papers, Public Records Office, Middlesex, VT.

  Gallagher, Nancy L. Breeding Better Vermonters: The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1999.

  Gallagher, Nancy L. “Vermont Eugenics: A Documentary History.” Online resource, www.uvm.edu/~eugenics.

  Kincheloe, Marsha R. and Herbert G. Hunt, Jr. Empty Beds: A History of Vermont State Hospital. Barre, VT: Northlight Studio Press, 1988.

  Laws of Vermont. 31st Biennial session (1931): 194–96. No. 174—An Act for Human Betterment by Voluntary Sterilization.

  Oatman, Michael. “Long Shadows: Henry Perkins and the Eugenics Survey of Vermont.” Exhibit at Mass MOCA, Spring 2001.

  Wiseman, Fred. The Voice of the Dawn: An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2001.

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  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2003 by Jodi Picoult

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-4919-2

  ISBN-10: 1-4165-4919-6

  ISBN: 978-0-7434-8075-8 (eBook)

  This Atria Books export edition January 2007

  ATRIA BOOKS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Monday

  Anna

  Campbell

  Sara

  Brian

  Tuesday

  Anna

  Sara

  Wednesday

  Campbell

  Anna

  Jesse

  Sara

  Julia

  Campbell

  Anna

  Thursday

  Brian

  Julia

  Sara

  Anna

  Campbell

  Jesse

  Brian

  Friday

  Campbell

  Brian

  Sara

  The Weekend

  Jesse

  Anna

  Brian

  Sara

  Anna

  Julia

  Monday

  Campbell

  Anna

  Sara

  Jesse

  Brian

  Campbell

  Tuesday

  Campbell

  Sara

  Wednesday

  Julia

  Campbell

  Julia

  Campbell

  Anna

  Brian

  Campbell

  Anna

  Sara

  Thursday

  Campbell

  Jesse

  Anna

  Brian

  Sara

  Campbell

  Anna

  Brian

  Sara

  Epilogue

  Kate

  About This Guide

  A Conversation With Jodi Picoult

  Questions And Topics For Discussion

  A Readers Club Guide

  To the Currans:

  The best family members we’re not technically related to.

  Thanks for being such a big part of our lives.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As the mother of a child who had ten surgeries in three years, I would like to thank first the doctors and nurses who routinely take the hardest moments a family can experience and soften the edges: to Dr. Roland Eavey and the pediatric nursing staff at Mass. Eye and Ear—thank you for the real-life happy ending. In the course of writing My Sister’s Keeper, as always, I was reminded of how very little I know, and how much I rely on the experience and the intellect of others. For allowing me to borrow from their lives personally and professionally, or for suggestions of pure writing genius: thank you, Jennifer Sternick, Sherry Fritzsche, Giancarlo Cicchetti, Greg Kachejian, Dr. Vincent Guarerra, Dr. Richard Stone, Dr. Farid Boulad, Dr. Eric Terman, Dr. James Umlas, Wyatt Fox, Andrea Greene and Dr. Michael Goldman, Lori Thompson, Synthia Follensbee, Robin Kall, Mary Ann McKenney, Harriet St. Laurent, April Murdoch, Aidan Curran, Jane Picoult, and Jo-Ann Mapson. For making me “can man” for the night, and part of a bona fide firefighting team: thanks to Michael Clark, Dave Hautanemi, Richard “Pokey” Low, and Jim Belanger (who also gets a gold star for editing my mistakes). For throwing their considerable support behind me, thanks to Carolyn Reidy, Judith Curr, Camille McDuffie, Laura Mullen, Sarah Branham, Karen Mender, Shannon McKenna, Paolo Pepe, Seale Ballenger, Anne Harris, and the indomitable Atria sales force. For believing in me first, my pure gratitude to Laura Gross. For outstanding guidance and the freedom to spread my wings, my sincere appreciation to Emily Bestler. For Scott and Amanda MacLellan, and Dave Cranmer—who offered me insight into the triumphs and tragedies of living daily with a life-threatening disease—thank you for your generosity, and best wishes for a long and healthy future.

  And, as always, thanks to Kyle, Jake, Sammy, and especially to Tim, for being what matters most.

  PROLOGUE

  No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so—without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it.

  —CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, Vom Kriege

&nbs