Most of these essays were published, albeit in different form, in magazines and newspapers. I am extremely grateful to those publications and to my editors for their faith and support. My particular thanks to David Lynn and the Kenyon Review; Chloe Schama and Vogue; Lucas Zwirner and Zwirner Books; Leon Wieseltier and the New Republic; Albert Mobilio and Bookforum; M Mark and PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers; Nadja Spiegelman and the Paris Review Online; Judith Gurewich and the Other Press; Catherine Taylor and Folio Press; Daniel Halpern and Ecco Press; Alida Becker and the New York Times Book Review; and Maggie Fergusson and Intelligent Life (now 1843 Magazine). I am forever indebted to John Freeman (of Granta, LitHub, and Freeman’s) for his generosity, kindness, and editorial acumen, and for laughing when I told him about our dogs. And my incalculable thanks to the late Bob Silvers, whose unforgettable voice is always in my ear, whose wisdom and attention to the text shaped my critical writing, and whose faith meant a great deal to me. I miss his presence in the world and am grateful to his colleagues, Lucy McKeon, Matt Seaton, and Eve Bowen among them, for the continued vitality of the New York Review of Books.
My thanks also to the extraordinary team at the Wylie Agency, with particular gratitude to Sarah Chalfant, Rebecca Nagel, and Luke Ingram; and to my brilliant editor, Jill Bialosky—with whom it is such a gift to work—and to everyone at Norton, especially Drew Weitman and Erin Lovett. My thanks also to my wonderful editor in the UK, Ursula Doyle, and to the team at Fleet/Little Brown, with special thanks to Charlie King and Zoe Hood.
My colleagues at Harvard University and, before that, at Hunter College CUNY have been precious interlocutors in literary conversation, as have several dear friends who generously read some of these pieces along the way, among them Shefali Malhoutra, Mary Bing, Mark Gevisser, and Ira Sachs. Thanks also to Michael Ravitch and Itamar Kubovy for invaluable conversations in person and on the page. And in Cambridge, to Homi Bhabha, Melissa Franklin, Susanna Kaysen, John Daniels, Sheila Gallagher, and Neel Mukherjee.
As these essays make clear, my family is at the heart of it all: my gratitude and love, as always, to dear JW, to Livia and Lucian, and to my amazing sister, Elizabeth. She and I are the only ones left, now, of the family that was; the spirits of our parents and grandparents live on in their words.