When Alice Lay Down With Peter (50 page)

In the course of writing this novel, I have consulted many books, and owe a debt to all of them. I am particularly grateful for the following:

Maggie Siggins,
Riel: A Life of Revolution
(Toronto: HarperCollins, 1994); Blair Stonechild and Bill Waiser,
Loyal till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion
(Calgary: Fifth House, 1997); Mary Weekes (as told to her by Norbert Welsh),
The Last Buffalo Hunter
(Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1994); A. Ross McCormack,
Reformers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement, 1899—1919
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977); Victor Howard, “We
Were the Salt of the Earth!”: A Narrative of the On-to-Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riot
(Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1985); Victor Howard and J.M. Reynolds,
The MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion: The Canadian Contingent in the Spanish Civil War
(Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1986); Len Scher,
The Un-Canadians: True Stories of the Blacklist Era
(Toronto: Lester Publishing Ltd., 1992); and John Henry Comstock and Anna Botsford Comstock, H
OW
to Know the Butterflies
(New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1915).

I wish to thank the Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for their generous assistance. And to Janice Weaver, Victoria Marchand, Lorraine Sweatman, Alan Sweatman, Dawne McCance, Linda Stecheson, Elizabeth Sweatman, Connie MacDonald, Sally Sweatman, Peter C. Newman, Lindy Clubb and Barbara Schott, many thanks.

Diane Martin at Knopf Canada has helped me countless times with her canny, witty editorial talent. And it is a delight and a privilege to work with my agent, Anne McDermid.

At last, at the end of Blondie’s journey, I am able to thank my husband, Glenn Buhr. Without his humorous wisdom, his clarity and courage, this book and I would have long since lost heart.

M
ARGARET SWEATMAN
began
When Alice Lay Down With Peter
in St. Norbert, Manitoba, where her studio overlooked the Red River. During the writing, her house flooded twice and was eventually lost to the river. “Everything about the book is located there,” she says, “in a much-loved place.” A playwright and lyricist, she is the author of two previous novels,
Sam and Angie
, and
Fox
. Margaret Sweatman lives in Winnipeg.