THIS BOOK found its first incarnation in Austin, Texas; its second, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I would especially like to thank two people for their generous attention and for spirited and scrupulous readings of the book in that first stage of its being: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and James L. Kinneavy, both, at that time, of the University of Texas at Austin. Particular thanks are also due to Janice Haney-Peritz for her consistently responsive reading and sensitive support; to Angela Ingram for her friendship and for her immeasurable help in garnering books and other library resources; and to Karen Umminger of Bookwomen. I owe a special note of gratitude to Ann Lindsey for unfailing moral support when I needed it most. I would also like to acknowledge the continuing influence of Lois Mar-chino, a good Friend and an early mentor. To Amanda Masterson, my thanks for her good judgment, good humor, and practical help at a crucial stage in the manuscript’s revision. For persistent, energetic encouragement toward publication, my thanks to Jane Marcus.
To the English Department of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and especially to Chairperson Claudia Johnson, my gratitude for the released time that allowed the final form of the manuscript to take shape. For special attentiveness to the needs of my work and for their contributions to the project in which we are all engaged, my thanks to Elizabeth Meese and Alice Parker. For sharing many difficult times in this second shaping of the book—and, importantly, for helping me to bridge the gap between the first and second—I acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Bethsaida Fletcher for her unflagging support, encouragement, and care.