This story was suggested by a news item in the New York Herald, 1849, but the main characters are entirely fictional. The historical framework -- manor system, anti-rent wars, Astor Place massacre, and steamboat race -- is, however, founded on fact, and I have tried to be accurate in presenting it and all background detail. There was, on the Hudson, a way of life such as this, and there was a house not unlike Dragonwyck. All Gothic magnificence and eerie manifestations were not at that time inevitably confined to English castles or Southern plantations! I want to thank the patient and helpful librarians at the Greenwich Library, and many kind people who facilitated my research in Hudson, Albany, Kinderhook, Cornwall, and other towns along the river. I am particularly grateful to Mr. Carl Carmer, not only for his book 'The Hudson,' to which I am very much indebted, but for his personal help and interest. - Anya Seton