Acknowledgments and Dedication

A minor flaw occurred in the last stages before publication: due to miscommunication, the dedication & acknowledgments were left out of the book.   I hope someday to correct this error in print; but for now, let these on-line acknowledgments indicate my deep gratitude to the following people:

Oberlin College students in courses on nature writing, Transcendentalism, & rivers, & particularly those fearless few who went on to serve as Research Assistants for the project: Erin Farrell, Shoshana Friedman, Ben Groth, Rachel Karasick, & David Unger.

Colleagues at Oberlin who have boated or fished or splashed around with me, argued or explained things about rivers or literature: Mary Garvin, Chris Howell, Gillian Johns, Nick Jones, Tom Newlin, David Orr, Nick Petzak.

At Iowa University Press, Joe Parsons & Wayne Franklin — their interest, guidance, & support played an enormous role in bringing this project to light.

Key readers, prompters, & friends, of various moments — John Knott (The Beginning), Jeff Rowe (The Middle), Christa Champion (The End & The Next Beginning).

Fellow river-travelers: my dad, Henry Leon McMillin, on streams of the past & the middle Mississippi; Lance Newman &  Moki Mac, on the Colorado; Andrew Marcus, on the Concord & Merrimack; all of the Grovers, the Sacias, the Hovells, on the upper Mississippi; Keith Tarvin, on the Rio Grande; Todd McGovern & Caroline Gelb, on the East River; Steve List, for canoe-trips, raft-trips, tube-trips, swimming & hiking alongside many rivers, including the Green & the Colorado.

And I especially thank my wife, Laurie Hovell McMillin, & our sons, Liam & Jack McMillin, who explored a number of the above named waterways with me & a host of others besides.  For their adventurous natures, for their energy & enthusiasm, for their wondrous love, for connecting me to what is most meaningful, The Meaning of Rivers is dedicated to them.