In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at National Book Award-winner William T. Vollman's A Table for Fortune, a four-part novel about the last half-century of American politics, war, and life.

Here's how the book came together:

William T. Vollmann

Author

“My protagonist is a brilliant, ethical, right-wing CIA analyst who’s been a spook since his Vietnam days. He loves America and the CIA, and believes that we would never do the evil things we have done in Iraq. He knows that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. My book follows him from 1968 to 2019. The second half of the book is about his homeless, mentally challenged son who wanders around looking for America. This book, like so many of mine, is about what America is, pretends to be, aspires to be, and ought to be.”

Susan Golomb

Senior Agent, Writers House

“When Bill told me he was writing a novel about the CIA, I was thrilled. Isaac Morris learned in April of 2024 that the book was still available and reached out to me. Happily, Isaac has worked collaboratively and tirelessly to meet Bill’s needs with the book.”

Isaac Morris

Editor, Skyhorse

“The book is dense with historical fact, and I spent about a year double-checking spellings, dates, and figures. I thought that Bill might be a curmudgeonly author
to work with. Rather, he is exceedingly generous, funny, and open to suggestion. This was my first acquisition as an editor, and I don’t know if I will ever work on a longer, more rewarding book.”

Lead Designer, Skyhorse

David Ter-Avanesyan

“I received the first four photos from Isaac Morris to use on the covers. I started off with a simple design of photo on the bottom and then type on top, then I tried some textures in back of the type. That didn’t do justice to the covers, so we continued with a bit more layout and other photos until we got to the current cover, where it is full-frame with type going around the photo.”