We are both thankful for the many people who helped us visualize, research, and produce this book. It’s been an adventure and labor of love for us to work together.
First and foremost, we could not have done it without the indispensable Lauren Peterson, our intrepid collaborator. Her writing skills and love of the subject are unmatched, and her good humor in navigating between our different working styles (one of us still writes longhand) deserves special recognition, as does her help in the painful process of moving from our initial count of more than 200 essays to the 105 we share in this book. We are also grateful to all of the teachers, historians, writers, and librarians who helped shape and guide our thinking and writing over the years, including for this book.
Opal Vadhan provided invaluable contributions in deciphering Hillary’s handwriting and researching our endless arcane inquiries; her efforts added immeasurably to our own. She was ably assisted by Harshil Bansal, Nina Emilie Bechmann, Charles Burton-Callegari, Jessica Grubesic, Olivia Hartman, Sara Hussain, Alana Jennis, Ashley Kawakami, Anna Matefy, Valia Mitsakis, Dylan Mott, Maria Julia Pieraccioni, Madison Sidwell, Ekum Sohal, Millie Todd, Olivia Weathers, and Aija Zamurs.
We were very lucky that Ruby Shamir, an author with whom we have both worked before, led our fact-checking efforts, and that the indefatigable Joy Secuban took on the formidable challenge of finding all the photographs we needed, tracking them down, and securing permissions. Both of their efforts made this book stronger and more vibrant.
As always, we appreciate the help we received from our teams and friends who offered advice along the way: Huma Abedin, Allida Black, Kristina Costa, Bari Lurie, Nick Merrill, Laura Olin, Megan Rooney, Robert Russo, Dan Schwerin, Ella Serrano, Lona Valmoro, Melanne Verveer, Shanna Weathersby, Emily Young, and Liz Zaretsky. A special thank you to Marc, a wonderful husband and son-in-law who is also a wonderful reader. And, as always, thanks to Bill/Dad for offering comments.
A heartfelt thank-you to Jonathan Karp, Priscilla Painton, Elizabeth Breeden, Annie Craig, Amar Deol, Paul Dippolito, Lisa Erwin, Jonathan Evans, Elizabeth Gay, Cary Goldstein, Kimberly Goldstein, Yvette Grant, Kayley Hoffman, Megan Hogan, Irene Kheradi, Sara Kitchen, Ruth Lee-Mui, Richard Rhorer, Elise Ringo, and Jackie Seow at Simon & Schuster, who believed in this book and stayed with us through all the ups and downs. And we both value the continuing support of our respective lawyers, Bob Barnett and Tara Kole.
We will be donating a portion of the proceeds from this book to organizations that support the work and legacies of the women spotlighted within it.
Finally, we want to thank Charlotte and Aidan for providing endless joy and laughter throughout this process, as throughout all days.