I would like to thank Jon Woronoff for asking me to undertake this project, about which I had some apprehension at first. It has been both a pleasure and an adventure to write the dictionary, giving me an excuse to spend a month and a half in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale gathering biographical information, and the opportunity to learn a great deal more about the French Revolution as I wrote the entries over the past three years. I would like also to thank Butler University, and in particular Dean Steven Kaplan, for granting me a semester leave in the fall of 2001 to begin serious writing. Three Butler students assisted me in compiling the bibliography: Karleigh Koster, Michelle Kasten, and Courtney Campbell, and I am deeply appreciative of the care they devoted to the task.