Update: this was a configuration error. In my haste/carelessness, instead of defining separate "spellcheck" and "suggest" components, I defined only "suggest". (More specifically I copied over the ch10 examples from "solr in action", but did not copy the "spellcheck" component." )
When solr complained about not finding 'spellcheck' component, I looked over my (bad) solrconfig.xml and thought "hmm. 'spellcheck..component probably should be 'suggest'". It worked after re-indexing..and appeared to function correctly. Cracking open the hard copy, sitting down in the easy chair, looking carefully over the chapter brought the issue to my attention. thanks for your patience...
