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xvii  Acknowledgments Many people and institutions made this project possible. Funding for research was provided by the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Historical Society of Southern California. At the University of Minnesota, a sabbatical and sabbatical supplement , a McKnight Research Award, and a Grant-in-Aid have all allowed me to complete the book in a timely fashion. My two research assistants, Sara Cohen and Elissa Hansen, have heroically read countless reels of microfilm, contacted dozens of archives, and tracked down innumerable esoteric references. Thanks also to Ellen Messer-Davidow, my department chair, for her support. I owe a great deal of gratitude especially to the many librarians, archivists , and local historians who provided materials on these women readers and answered my questions. I thank the following in particular: Ann Barton, Texas Women’s University Blagg-Huey Library; Mary Beth Brown, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri–Columbia; Linda Carroll, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, Massachusetts; Steve Charter , Bowling Green State University Archives; Elaine Davis, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library; Teresa Dearing, Danville, New York, Public Library; Aurora Deshauteurs, Free Library of Philadelphia; Shanna English, Old Jail Museum and Archives, Barnesville, Georgia; Dawn Eurich, Detroit Public Library; Andrea Faling, Nebraska State Historical Society; Michael Flanagan, Onandaga Historical Association, New York; Michele Hansford , Powers Museum, Carthage, Missouri; David M. Hays, University of Colorado–Boulder Library; Rachel Howell, Dallas Public Library; Sarah Hull, Plainfield Public Library, New Jersey; Karen Jania, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan; Christine Jochem, Morristown and Morris Township Library, New Jersey; Norwood Kerr, Alabama Department of Archives and History; Bob Knecht and the staff at the Kansas State Historical Society; Karen Kukil, William Allan Neilson Library, Smith College; Keith Longiotti, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Library; Chandler Lyons, Peoria Historical Society, Illinois; Karen M. Mason, University of Iowa Library; Tom Mooney, Nebraska State Historical Society; Alison Moore, California Historical Society; Louise Pfotenhauer, Neville Public Museum of Brown County, xviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Wisconsin; Jean Putch, Ilion, New York, Public Library; Kate Reeve, Arizona Historical Society; Susan Richards, Dallas Historical Society; Victoria D. Schneiderman , Medford Public Library, Massachusetts; Kayin Shabazz, Robert W. Woodruff Library,Atlanta University; Nancy Shawcross,University of Pennsylvania Rare Book and Manuscript Library;Geraldine Strey,Wisconsin Historical Society;Bruce Tabb,University of Oregon Library;Paula Taylor,Arkansas History Commission; June Underwood;Anthony Vaver, Natick Shakespeare Club, Massachusetts; Harrison Wick, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Library; Georgianna Ziegler, Folger Shakespeare Library; and the Interlibrary Loan staff at the University of Minnesota. I am especially grateful to the members of the Anne Hudgins Shakespeare Class of Marietta, Georgia, especially President Candice Azermendi, who welcomed me to one of their meetings and shared their private archives. Scott Rubel generously provided the photograph of his great-grandmother’s club,the Wednesday Morning Club of Pueblo, Colorado. DeAnn Ruggles of the Peoria, Illinois, Women’s Club met me on a holiday so that I could get a copy of the photograph of the Peoria Shakespeare Class for the cover of this book,and gave me a tour of the charming theater where the women performed Shakespeare. Mary Ellen Lamb encouraged this project from the start and also kindly put me in touch with the women of her mother’s Shakespeare club in Grove City, Pennsylvania. The late Sasha Roberts shared her enthusiasm for women readers early on; I miss her kind spirit and optimism. Many colleagues and friends generously read parts of the book and offered helpful comments: Tanya Caldwell, Clara Calvo, Michael Dobson, Andy Elfenbein, Susanne Greenhalgh, Michael Hancher, Ton Hoenselaars, Becky Krug, Nabil Matar, Andy Murphy, Heather Murray, Robert Sawyer, Monika Smialkowski, Anne Thompson, Ginger Vaughan, and John Watkins . I was lucky to have Ed Griffin read the whole manuscript diligently and thoroughly. The two anonymous readers for the Press were encouraging and their comments invaluable. Peter Potter, my editor at Cornell, inspired and encouraged me and kept the project on track,as did Ange Romeo-Hall and Katherine Liu. Shirley Nelson Garner suggested the title of this book, which comes from Cymbeline. She pointed out the appropriateness of using words from Shakespeare’s villain Iachimo to frame a book on women’s (sometimes subversive) acts of educating themselves. Earlier versions of some material have been published as “Commemorating Shakespeare and Domestic Practices,” Critical Survey 22.2 (2010): 62–75; “Women Reading Shakespeare in the Outpost: Rural Reading Groups, Literary Culture, and Civic Life in America,” in Reading in History: New Methodologies from the...

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