An American Procession was first worked out, in part, as the Christian Gauss lectures at Princeton, 1961, and in the lectures I gave as Beckman professor in 1963 at the University of California, Berkeley. Since that time I have been able to develop this book by drawing on my seminars at universities here and abroad, and on reviews, essays, and introductions I have written. In the course of more than twenty years I have been constantly stimulated by rethinking and recasting my early efforts.
The book has been aided considerably by the support of Dr. Gordon Ray and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and by fellowships, 1977–78, from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University.
My students at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York have helped more than they know by fiercely arguing back.
I owe a special debt to my editor, Robert Gottlieb. He cares about these books as much as I do and, without regard for my feelings, has insistently demonstrated literary acumen beyond the call of duty.
Without my wife Judith, nothing would have happened.