Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster is the publisher and e-book distributor named in the memoir’s front and back matter, and the organization’s staff receive explicit thanks for helping bring the book to publication. Its presence extends from editorial and production acknowledgments to the promotional notices surrounding the digital text, placing the memoir within both a network of individual collaborators and a commercial publishing frame.

Publishing and Digital Frame

The book identifies itself as a Simon & Schuster eBook in a notice inviting readers to sign up for the publisher’s newsletter for special offers, bonus content, and information about new releases. The notice appears in the book’s digital framing, and another directs readers to eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com. These elements present the memoir not only as a completed narrative but also as part of the publisher’s ongoing relationship with e-book readers and its wider catalog.

Editorial and Production Support

In the acknowledgments, Deborah Feldman credits the Simon & Schuster team with taking time to help make the manuscript the best it could be. She singles out editor Sarah Knight for turning the manuscript into a book, and thanks Molly Lindley for dedication and efficiency in untangling difficulties faced by a first-time author. Brian, Kate, and Jessica are thanked for their enthusiasm and patience.

The acknowledgments also name people involved in the book’s appearance: Nancy Singer, Monica Gurevich/Julie Metz Ltd., Sybil Pincus, and Peg Haller are credited with making it look like a book. These thanks distinguish the labor of editing and manuscript support from the work that shaped the finished volume’s presentation. Simon & Schuster is credited as the larger team that helped bring those contributions together.

Collaboration Beyond the Publisher

Feldman describes the book as the result of many people’s efforts, minimizing her own share in that collective process. She credits Patricia van der Leun, her agent and mentor, with advice that helped steer her, and Carolyn Ferrell with providing a writing workshop that served as a sounding board for the memoir’s beginnings. Feedback from classmates at Sarah Lawrence College and support from early readers Katherine Quinby Stone, Adam Singer, and Julia Sternberg also formed part of the book’s development. The acknowledgments therefore place Simon & Schuster within a broader collaborative history rather than presenting publication as the work of the publisher alone.

The Book’s Stated Boundaries

The memoir’s opening note says that identifying characteristics have been changed and that, although the incidents are true, some events have been compressed, consolidated, or reordered to protect the people involved and maintain narrative continuity. It also describes the dialogue as an approximation of conversations, to the author’s recollection. This qualification belongs to the book’s account of how the memoir was shaped; it should not be confused with a statement that Simon & Schuster independently verified the events. The publisher’s role, as documented in the volume, is instead visible through its named editorial and production support and the digital notices that accompany the text.