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Acknowledgments I have written Artistic Ambassadors only by contracting large intellectual and personal debts. During the project’s early life, I found an unmatched mentor in Deborah McDowell, whose intellectual rigor and attention to detail have been inspiring. Conversations with her shaped the project and pushed Artistic Ambassadors in ways I could not have anticipated. Marlon Ross’s generous comments and conversations helped to contextualize , redirect, and enrich numerous lines of argument. Eric Lott has had a profound influence on this project—from his 2003 postnationalist American studies seminar to his crucial comments on an early draft of chapter 4. Lawrie Balfour’s perspectives were also helpful as I worked to transform the project into a book. Several others have made important contributions to this project. Early on, Marion Rust directed my attention to the ways in which various forms of representation have intersected in American history. Walter Benn Michaels, Jennifer Ashton, Trent Hickman, and Ben Fagan offered helpful commentary on the project’s framing. John Ernest, Kathy Pfeiffer, Leonard Robinson, and John Alba Cutler’s enthusiastic and incisive questions regarding James Weldon Johnson’s work in diplomacy forced me to tighten and complicate an article-length version of chapter 2, which is published here in revised form with the permission of Modern Fiction Studies. David Krasner, Heather Nathans, Michael Chaney, Harry Stecopoulos, and Lotta Löfgren made important suggestions on chapter 3’s treatment of Henry Francis Downing, which in article form received the 2009 Darwin T. Turner Award for best essay of the year in African American Review (published in issue 42.2). Conversations with Sarah Silkey and Melissa White offered perspective as I drafted chapter 5, and a long-running x / acknowledgments conversation with Adele Logan Alexander proved crucial to this chapter’s treatment of Ida Gibbs Hunt. Her willingness to share work-in-progress on the Hunts’ biography made this chapter possible. George Handley, John Carlos Rowe, and especially Keith Foulcher made useful suggestions on chapter 6’s treatment of Richard Wright in Indonesia. David Hill, Brent Edwards, Hilmar Farid, Jennifer Lindsay, and Paul Tickell helped in identifying and tracking down sources for this chapter. My research assistants Eric Teng and Anggita Putri, as well as Keith Foulcher, helped translate several Indonesian sources. I am also indebted to Cathie Brettschneider and the anonymous readers for UVA Press. More generally, Ben Bateman, Jay Bishoff, Nathan Boyack, Frank Christianson, Nate Cox, Jesse Crisler, Gloria Cronin, Aaron Cummings, Katy Cummings, Dennis Cutchins, Ed Cutler, Jason Daniel, Emron Esplin , Billy Hall, Jared Hickman, Keith Lawrence, Peter Leman, Suzanne Lundquist, Nick Mason, Kristin Matthews, Frank Meeuwis, Rosemary Millar, Erich Nunn, Susan Owen, Dennis Perry, LeeAnn Reynolds, Jamin Rowan, Jill Rudy, Scott Samuelson, Phil Snyder, Michelle Stephens , Jackie Thursby, and Matt Wickman offered crucial intellectual and moral support along the way. I am grateful for the help of archivists at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Yale University’s Beinecke Library, the Chicago Historical Society , the University of Chicago’s Special Collections, Fisk University’s Franklin Library, and Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. Early on, Barbara Foley offered helpful commentary on the uses of archival materials. I am also grateful to the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, the English Department at the University of Virginia , and the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University for the funding that made this archival research possible. UVA’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and BYU’s English Department provided a fellowship and course releases that afforded me time to write. My family has been the starting point. To my parents, Cathy and Roland, and my siblings, David, Emily, Whitney, and Michael: thanks for making smart comments about the materials and historical moments I have described to you. Thanks also to Evelyn for your enthusiastic support . William and Sierra, you have been hearing about this book and drawing on the back of marked-up manuscript pages for a few years now. Thank you for cheering me on. My greatest gratitude goes to Norma, my brilliant and talented wife, who has read and commented on every page more than once. I would not have written this book without you. ...

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