Acknowledgments

This book was a collaborative effort, and I have so many people to thank, I can’t possibly do all or adequate thanking here. This is just a preliminary sketch of my gratitude! Thanks to my unflinching, unstinting agent, Tara Gelsomino, for the honesty, support, and vision. Thanks to my editor, Kate Seaver, for reading so sharply and so generously, and for asking the right questions, and thanks, too, to the whole team at Berkley.

I’m grateful to Wake Forest University for funding my research trip to the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and to Jessica Richard and the entire English department: faculty, staff, and students. You inspire my thinking and my writing practice. And answer so many of my questions about nineteenth century history and literature! Thanks in particular to Amy Catanzano and Eric Wilson, and the rest of Team CRW.

Thanks to Mark Pomeroy for orienting me to the relevant archives in the Royal Academy of Arts Library.

Thanks to Yaddo for the most magical winter ever. I didn’t work on this book in the snowy woods, but I talked about it with my coresidents at dinner and their enthusiasm recommitted me to the project.

Thanks to my first readers, Joanna and John—onward to the island! And to my dramaturges, Julia, Robert, Marina, Cat, and Sarah E. Without them I would still be pronouncing the “s” in viscount. And doing who knows what else. Thanks to Anand for listening to me talk about law in Victorian England and telling me I wasn’t making sense. Thanks to the friends who’ve turned Winston-Salem into home: Sarah H., Matt, Frankie, Marcia, Saylor, and Rian. Thanks to the girl gang for dialogue and Double Dutch. Thanks to my Providence community and its diaspora. Thanks to Hana and Miriam (much more than two) for sharing their strength. Thanks to Christine for crystallinity. Thanks to Lamar for the gift of the list. Thanks to Brad and Dona for forming the Sandgate artist posse and keeping me saner. Thanks to Art for reminding me of our work and why we do it. Thanks to Brian Conn for being Brian Conn. Meows to Kitty MaKat, aunt of feline magic. Stiv forever. Thanks to the friends with whom and for whom I build new versions of the world: Nico, Chemlawn, Corinne, Radhika, and Joanna. Thanks to Mir, whose love language is acts of service (and all the other ones). And thanks to my parents and my brother, whose love has always meant everything.