Acknowledgments

Herb Dow got me started, and Stanley Pittman, to whom Herb introduced me, was the best possible guide to peanut country.

At Columbia University Press, Jennifer Crewe acquired the manuscript and ably edited it, while Anne McCoy was (and is) the congenial managing editor. Asya Graf and Kathryn Schell assisted Jennifer and me, and Irene Pavitt turned her eagle eye on the manuscript. Thanks also to publicist Peter Barrett and art director Julia Kushnirsky, and to John Donohue at Westchester Publishing Services.

At the various peanut industry trade organizations, thanks to Don Koehler of the Georgia Peanut Commission; Patrick Archer, Cindy Stickles, and Louise McKerchar of the American Peanut Council; Leslie Wagner of the Southern Peanut Growers; John Powell of the American Peanut Shellers Association; and Pat Kearney of the Peanut Institute.

Andrew F. Smith and Noel Riley Fitch served as my mentors. Anthony Prillaman of the National Agricultural Statistics Service fielded my endless e-mails as I tried to make sense of peanut-butter statistics.

Frank Delfino is a genuine original and living museum of Skippy peanut butter. Rick Rosefield provided several helpful interviews about the peanut butter his grandfather developed. I also received help with the Skippy story from Larry Shearon, Carl “Rocky” Bleier, Thomas Fuller, Bert Gannon, James Hirchak, George Mackin, and Earl Spady.

Help with the Jif story came from Paul Kiely, Neil Kreisberg, William Covington, John Gretz, David Guin, Rita Keys, Don Taylor, William T. Young Jr., Ted Woehrle, Hunter Yager, and Edward Meyer.

Background on Deaf Smith and the New Mexico peanut and peanut butter industries came from the late Frank Ford, and from Boyd Foster, George Speck, Herb Marchman, Jimmy Shearer, James Glueck, and Verla Brown.

Lavina Wilson helped me with the story of Beech-Nut peanut butter. The honor roll of librarians includes Duncan McCluskey at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, Georgia; Karen Weis of the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Mary land; Karin Lundstrom of the Alameda Free Library; Jean E. Meeh Gosebrink of the special collections department of the St. Louis Public Library; Sheryn Morris and Judy Ostrander of the Los Angeles Public Library; Denise Shanks of the Kentucky Room at the Lexington Public Library; Chris Tonjes of the District of Columbia Public Library; Diane Wagner and Nicole LaFlamme of the Procter & Gamble Corporate Archives and Heritage Center; Edie Carmichael of the Wilson Historical Room of the Portsmouth, Virginia, Public Library; Mary Braswell at the Albany Herald (Albany, Ga.); George Livingston of the Willard Memorial Library in Battle Creek, Michigan; Holly Fiedler and Sally Rappa of the Canojaharie, New York, Public Library; Michelle Carver at the Center for Research Libraries; and Helene Mochedlover of the Los Angeles Public Library (ret.).

Thanks to Walt Albritton for his tour of Tara Foods in Albany, Georgia, and to Gregg Grimsley for his tour of the Birdsong shelling plant in Sylvester, Georgia.

Gregg Brandow allowed me to hitchhike on his faculty borrowing privileges. Ruth Elwell provided the index.

My research staff included Teri Jurgens Lefever and Veldean Petri in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and Matthew Gilmore of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs for the District of Columbia.

In the groves of academe, thanks to Chris Craney, Dan Gorbet, Richard Hazlett, Donald Prothero, and Barry Tillman. Thanks also to Janet Miller of the Hinsdale, Illinois, Historical Society, and Jamie Millard of the Lexington History Museum.

Helpful interviews were provided by John Beasley, Suzanne Corbett, Frank Ford, Boyd Foster, Brian Giunta, Ned Groth, Ben Houston, the late Dave Hovet, Suzanne Junod, Paul Kiely, Jeff Koeze, Gary List, Charles Perry, Martha Pierce, Jeffery Pittman, Roy Pittman, Stoy Proctor, Tim Sanders, Dr. Scott Sicherer, Christopher Weiss, Wendell Williams, Mary Ellen Young of Information Resources Inc. (IRI), and Lee Zalben.

Christie Haynes labored mightily to get me a photo of the peanut statue. Keith Briggman helped me grow my own peanut patch.

Karl Schneider of the National Agricultural Library of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided the book’s epigraph.

I also want to thank Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, even though things didn’t work out exactly as we expected.

Chapter readers included Ann (Breitkopf) Webb and Diane (DeeDee) Taub (both of whom ate peanut butter on hike day at Camp Farrington), Stanley Pittman, Dan Gorbet, Chris Craney, Tim Sanders, Gary List, Barry Levenson and his law students at the University of Wisconsin, Scott Sicherer, Ned Groth, Chris Weiss, Mark and Mardi Manary, Andrew F. Smith, Tim Sanders, Gary List, Frank Delfino, Larry Shearon, Paul Kiely, Hunter Yager, Boyd Foster, George Speck, Noel Riley Fitch, Herb Dow, and Bill Marler.

Anita Fore and Michael Gross of the Authors Guild provided solid advice on contract negotiations. Jonathan Kirsch provided helpful legal advice. Carol Eisner was the publicist with the mostest.

The genial Mark Glubke helped me overcome a ferocious case of writer’s block.

Iris Berl gets her standing credit.

David Drum provided moral support during advisory sessions at Señor Fish.

Finally, thanks to Dick Davis, who kept asking me if I’d finished it already and for whom I didn’t finish it on time.