The many Robeson friends who allowed me to interview them, the correspondents who shared firsthand anecdotes, and the owners of privately held manuscript materials who shared them with me are cited in the Note on Sources. That still leaves a large number of acknowledgments to make for a large variety of assists in preparing this book.
For help with translation, transcription, and research, I am grateful to Jules Cohen, Tim Couzzens, Anita Feldman, Martin Fishgold, Eric Garber, Eric Gordon, Rosalyn and Terrence Higgins, Michael Lipson, Laura May-hall, Peter Osnos, Grace Palladino, Susan Palmer, Anne Lise Spitzer, Carol Shookhoff, Laurie Winer, Nancy Wonders, and Zina Voynow. During the first year, Terry Collins labored with special diligence; during the last year, Janet Jones showed special resourcefulness in locating material on William Drew Robeson.
A number of specialists—medical, legal, and scholarly—have given me the benefit of their advice: Edward Allsworth, Stan Arnold, Nicholas Barber, Stephen F. Cohen, Thomas Cripps, Richard Dyer, Candace Falk, Donald Gallup, Edward Greer, Judith Mara Gutman, Barbara Haber, Frances Kean, Stanley I. Kutler, Ellis Levine, David Levering Lewis, Lawrence Mass, Michael S. de L. Neill, Robert Millman, Arnold Rampersad, Judith Stein, and Theodore Tyberg. For a wide assortment of other favors, assists, supports, and leads, I particularly want to thank: Dennis Altman, Joyce Easton Ashley, Neal Basen, Theresa Bauml, Rosalyn Baxandall, Kathy D. Beckwith, Sally Belfrage, Jolanta Benal, Alan Bennett, Esme E. Bhan, Alison Boyle, Susan Brownmiller, John Bynoe, Annette Cameron, Nancy Clements, Louise A. De Salva, Cecilia Drury, Joellen El Bashir, Bill French, Frankie Gillette, Saskia Grabow, Larry Gross, Barbara Heinzen, Jean Herskovits, Howard Johnson, Bruce Kellner, Randall Kenan, Michael Kimmel, Seymour Kleinberg, William A. Koshland, Gara La Marche, Hollis R. Lynch, William S. McFeely, August Meier, Ralph Melnick, Emily Miles, E. J. Montgomery, Frank Morris, Vance Muse, Marc Myers, Alan Newland, Mary Martin Niepold, Gil Noble, Kent Paul, Isabelle Powell, Thomas Powers, Shephard Raimi, David Richards, Judy (Rosen) Ruben, Rose Rubin, Irene Runge, D. A. Sachs, Kate Sharpe, Susan Sheehan, William Stampus, Dorothy D. Storck, Sarah McKinley Taylor, Mike Wallington, Steven Watson, Sule Grey Wilson, Laurie Winer, Melvin T. Wolfe, and Anne T. Zaroff.
The following archivists and librarians have been particularly resourceful and generous in aiding my research: Yuri Afanasyev (Moscow State Institute of History and Culture), Whitney Bagnall (Columbia Law School Archives), Brigid Bogelsack (Robeson Archiv, Berlin), Susan L. Boone (Sophia Smith Collection), James A. Cavanaugh (State Historical Society, Wisconsin), Toni Costonie (DuSable Museum), Rudolph De Jong (International Institute of Social History), Anne Engelhard (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe), Linda Evans (Chicago Historical Society), David Farneth (Kurt Weill Foundation for Music), Jackie Goggins (Library of Congress), Cathy Henderson (Ransom Humanities Center), Charles J. Kelly (Library of Congress), Diana Lachatanere (NYPL/Schomburg), R. Russell Maylove (Northwestern), Judith Mellins (Harvard Law School Archives), Eleanor Mish (American Museum of the Moving Image), Christine Naumann (Robeson Archiv, Berlin), Marjorie F. Nelson (Robersonville Public Library), Hans E. Panofsky (Herskovits Library of African Studies), Randy Penninger (Atkins Library, UNC, Charlotte), Kathleen Reed (Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania), Sheila Ryan (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale), Betsy Sandoz (UCLA Special Collections), David E. Schoonover (Beinecke Library, Yale), Ruth Simmons and Ed Skipworth (Rutgers University Archives), Richard Strassberg (Catherwood Library, Cornell), Edward E. Weber (Labadie Collection, University of Michigan), Richard J. Wolfe (Countway Medical Library, Harvard), and Mary Yearwood (NYPL/Schomburg).
I owe a special debt to the dedicated staff at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center of Howard University, the repository of the Robeson Archives; I am particularly grateful to Thomas C. Battle, Maricia Bracey, and Karen Jefferson for easing my path in a multitude of ways.
Finally, I’m greatly indebted to those—some of them participants in the events described, others “objective” scholarly observers—who read drafts of this book in whole or in part. Though occasionally I’ve had to resist the special pleading of certain participants (or, alternately, the ideological disagreements of certain scholars), these early comments have helped me to correct any number of errors. My thanks for their efforts to: Geraldine (Maimie) Neale Bledsoe, Angus Cameron, Revels Cayton, Frances Quiett Challenger, Peggy Dennis, Freda Diamond, Max Fink, Uta Hagen, Alfred Katzenstein, Ari Kiev, David Machin, Richard Nachtigall, Sam Parks, Rose Perry, Martin Popper, Paul Robeson, Jr., Helen Rosen, and Fredi Washington (Bell). I want to offer Eric Gordon, David Levering Lewis, and Eli Zal special thanks: they gave me immensely useful readings of the entire manuscript, catching everything from misplaced commas to fuzzy conceptualizations.
Barbara Bristol, my editor at Knopf, has patiently sat with me while—day after day, line by line—we fine-tuned the final manuscript; along with a superb set of editorial suggestions, which improved the manuscript immeasurably, she provided endless psychic balm. Frances Goldin, my agent and friend of long standing, amazes me more than ever: I know of no one else whose capacity for hard work is matched by such a capacity for caring. Eli Zal was a great comfort and support to me while I was finishing this book; he reminds me that there will still be life after it.