The Interpretation Of Murder (50 page)

    The body of Miss Elsie Sigel,
granddaughter of General Franz Sigel, was indeed discovered in the summer of
1909 in a trunk in an Eighth Avenue apartment belonging to one Leon Ling. The
character called Chong Sing in my book is a combination of the real-life Chong
Sing and another individual also involved in the case. Miss Sigel's body,
however, was found about two and a half months before Freud arrived in New
York, and, needless to say, the discovery was not made by Detective Jimmy
Littlemore, who is an entirely imaginary character.

    Equally imaginary is Dr Stratham
Younger, as is Younger s love affair with Nora.

    My deepest thanks to my brilliant
wife, Amy Chua, whose idea this book was, and to my beloved daughters, Sophia
and Louisa, who saw mistakes no one else did, starting on the very first page.
I owe a great debt to Suzanne Gluck and John Sterling for believing in this
novel, and to Jennifer Barth and George Hodgman for making it better. I want to
thank my parents, brother, and sister for their deep insight and affection.
Debby Rubenfeld, Jordan Smoller, Alexis Contant, Anne Dailey, Marina Santilli,
Susan Birke Fiedler, Lisa Gray, Anne Tofflemire, and James Bundy were kind
enough to provide early, invaluable critical readings. Heather Halberstadt was
a tremendous fact-checker, and I am grateful to Kenn Russell for his meticulous
eye.

    Jed Rubenfeld attended Princeton
University, the Juilliard School of Drama, and Harvard Law School. Currently
the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale University, Rubenfeld is the
author of the recently published
Revolution by Judiciary: The Structure of
American Constitutional Law
(Harvard University Press, 2005) and the
acclaimed
Freedom in Time: A Theory of Constitutional Self-Government
(Yale University Press, 2001).