Some came running [antikvár]

SPECIAL NOTE In this book, which is entirely fiction, the macabre imaginings of a novelist's mind, whose characters and situations are completely imaginary, and any resemblance to actual persons is accidental, as everyone can see, nobody like that ever lived, the fanciful workings of a perfervid brain,—in this book then, the author has taken certain deliberate liberties with time and space and geography, and with certain factual if minor events which did not always occur in the years stated, but were called so in order to gain proper effect. These were done with the author's full awareness and are not mistakes. So no one need write the author to point them out. Anyone driving along Route 40 will find there is no town of Parkman on it in Illinois. Nor is there any town of Israël. The River is not the State boundary on Route 40. There is no interstate bridge to Indiana upon Route 40. The interstate bridge, enhanced and modified, might be seen at Hutsonville; but Hutsonville is not Israël. Israël does not exist. Neither does Parkman. Both are composite results, results of the author's observation of the Illinois landscape and personality, an observation which has lasted some thirty odd years, with five years off for good behavior, in the Army. One more thing. There is a character in this novel which may cause surprise, or consternation, or even disbelief, among certain types of readers: that of the lady school teacher. In this connection, the author would like to point out that this character is—though changed and modified and personalized to suit the author's need, of course—the result of the author's fascination with, and great admiration for, Miss Emily Dick-inson. The author would like to, and chooses to, believe that such ladies could exist in 1950 as well as 1850. And now in fine, the author also wishes to take this op-portunity to thank all those kind people who wrote him letters telling him everything that was wrong with his last book. Also to thank those others, who wrote him letters telling him what was good about it. And he sincerely hopes that this book now will wholly and completely please and satisfy everyone in the whole world. Readers should also remember that the opinions expressed by the characters are not necessarily those of the author.