Every error in this book is my own doing, but many of the facts were culled by researchers, particularly Karen Avrich, Daisy Hernandez, Carol Lee, Christina Lem, Sasha Soreff, and Jen Uscher. This book has been only a sidelight in their lives, which otherwise have been full of achievement and adventure. Karen, the only professional researcher in the group, worked with me on my last book, Scorpion Tongues, and I was lucky enough to have her assistance again while she divided the rest of her time among other books-in-process and a movie script. Daisy, who undoubtedly learned more about the history of menstruation on this project than she necessarily wanted to know, coedited her own book, Colonize This, a collection of essays by young women of color. Sasha, who read and underlined books about everything from the history of waitressing to Amelia Earhart, pursued her career in choreography and teaching dance. One of her pieces, Tipping the Hourglass, was recently performed on public television. Christina has almost finished her own book about four generations of her family. Jen, among many other projects, got married and became famous as an expert on wild parrots in Brooklyn. Carol has finished graduate school, published her own journalism, and begun work as the researcher for the New York Times editorial department. One of the pleasures of doing this book was getting to share bits and pieces of all their lives. Others who assisted with research included Carolyn Brook, Melissa Henley, Latasha Quinones, Kam ChAn and Dean Cully Clark, and Lisa Daigle at the University of Alabama.
My friends Gail Gregg and Trish Hall were loyal readers and advisers throughout, and I’m grateful for the help of Eleanor Randolph and Maureen Dowd. I’m also lucky to be related to a bunch of extremely smart and supportive women. My sister-in-law, Kathleen Collins, helped with the research and provided constant encouragement. My mother, Rita Gleason, gave me really good suggestions for editing. My father, Roy, and my siblings, in-laws, nieces, and nephew cheered me on and put up with my disorganization and sporadic inattention. Another pleasure of this project was getting to know the world of women’s historians. Without implicating them in the product, I want to thank Linda Kerber, Christine Stansell, Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Carol Berkin, Carol Smith-Rosenberg, Katherine Kish Sklar, Kathleen Barry, Mary Beth Norton, and Joan Brumberg for their kindness and courtesy to me or my researchers.
The people who deserve my undying thanks for putting up with me while I was writing this book are too numerous to mention, but they certainly include everyone on the New York Times editorial board, particularly Phil Taubman, the deputy editor, whose patience and support were truly above and beyond the call of duty.
Finally, thanks to my agent, Alice Martell, the only person who likes what I write as much as my mother; Henry Ferris of William Morrow, who was the book’s first champion and who endured what was probably the worst Christmas of his existence in order to do a terrific last-minute editing job; and, above all, Dan Collins, without whom nothing would have been any fun.