I am immensely grateful to John Kulka, my editor at Harvard University Press, for the meticulousness, imagination, and generosity with which he has helped me edit Dorian Gray. This work also received terrific support from numerous colleagues at Virginia Commonwealth University: James Coleman, Dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences; Fred Hawkridge, his immediate predecessor; Terry Oggel, Chair of the English Department; Nick Sharp, David Latané, Catherine Ingrassia, Katherine Bassard, Eric Garberson, Susann Cokal, Laura Browder, Bryant Mangum, Josh Eckhardt, Kate Nash, Richard Priebe, and Tom Gresham. Work would have ground quickly to a halt without divine interventions from the angels in the office, especially Margret Schluer, Ginnie Schmitz, and the staffs of the VCU English and Interlibrary Loan offices. I am grateful to all of these individuals, departments, and administrators, for making VCU a wonderful place in which to work.
A special debt is owed to Merlin Holland, Wilde’s grandson, who generously granted me permission to publish material still in copyright, and whose own scholarship influenced my work profoundly. Michael Winship deftly and generously guided me through the labyrinthine archives of J. B. Lippincott and Co. My two anonymous readers for Harvard University Press provided useful criticisms and saved me from embarrassing mistakes at a crucial stage. Jerome McGann provided invaluable assistance with the Textual Introduction and later with the Preface, which was originally published, in a slightly different format, in Times Higher Education (“Censor Sensibility,” May 19, 2011). My wife, Susan Barstow, also commented incisively and frequently during the introductory essays’ composition. This book would not have been possible without the support and partnership she offers on a daily basis. Together with my children, Max, Theo, and Oliver, she continues to be a source of inspiration.
Grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Bibliographical Society of America enabled research and writing in the Summer of 2009. Adriana Kirilova and Heather Hughes expertly steered this edition through the press. I am indebted also to the staffs of the Pennsylvania Historical Society and the William Clark Andrews Jr. Memorial Library, especially Scott Jacobs, for many kindnesses; to Declan Kiely, Curator of Manuscripts at the Morgan Library; and to Rachel Foss, Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the British Library. The work of previous editors of Wilde’s novel—especially of Joseph Bristow, Donald F. Lawler, and Isobel Murray—constitutes the foundation on which I have built. My debts to these previous editors run deep.