Byron and the Jews

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments As what might be called an “accidental Byronist,” that is, as one who found her way to the British Romantic poet through Hebrew and Yiddish translations , I have had to rely a great deal on the kindness of others for help with this study. First, many Byron scholars were essential, not only for their published materials but for their personal generosity as well. In particular, Charles E. Robinson has been a consistent resource, both helping me generate basic research and initiating correspondence with Peter Cochran and Nizhni Novgorod, who helped me locate some of the Russian materials. Frederick Burwick and Paul Douglass commented on early versions of the section on the Hebrew Melodies; and Andrew Elfenbein and Emily A. Bernhard Jackson both read portions of the manuscript. Finally, Kari Lokke, Judith W. Page, Donald H. Reiman, Julia L. Scherr, Esther Schor, Reeva S. Simon, and Mike Snell all helped at various stages along the way. Certainly not to be overlooked are the anonymous readers whose critiques enabled me to revise the manuscript into a much stronger study. I also want to thank the many people who made suggestions when I presented sections of the book at conferences and colloquia. In particular, I appreciate comments from those who attended my panels at the Modern Language Association, the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism , the Joint Conference of the Centro interdiscisplinare di studi romantici and the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, the International Conference on Romanticism, the American Comparative Literature Association, the Queens College Center for Jewish Studies Faculty Colloquium, and the Eighteenth-Century Group, City University of New York Graduate Center. Discussions following my presentations helped me clarify particular aspects of the relationship between Byron and the Jews. Needless to say, this study entailed a great deal of archival work, so I have an especially large debt to a number of research institutions and their staffs. In particular, I want to thank the staff at the Dorot Jewish Division, x A C K N OW L E D G M E N T S New York Public Library; Yeshaya Metal at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York; Linda Stein at the University of Delaware Library, Newark; the staff at the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, the New York Public Library; the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the Bobst Library of New York University; and the libraries of the City University of New York. I owe special thanks to the National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, Massachusetts, which, through the Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, provided me with a reprint of Zilberman’s biography of Byron. Finally, I want to thank Kathryn Peterson Wildfong and the staff at Wayne State University Press for helping me transform my original manuscript into what I hope will be a well-received book. I apologize for having inevitably omitted some whose contributions also enriched this study. Needless to say, the book’s strengths benefited from all those who helped me along the way; the weaknesses, unfortunately , are my own. ...