Reading Arabia: British Orientalism in the Age of Mass Publication, 1880-1930

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments This book was written over the course of a rough period in my life, in both a personal and professional sense, though it was always a resource of hope. I especially enjoyed the research process, which admittedly was a kind of escape as I was lost in thought in various libraries and archives, working with compelling documents and manuscripts . Still, writing this book also involved that special pleasure of sharing something new and offering what I believe are original insights about an important feature of modern and contemporary world culture : the place of the fantasy of the Orient in everyday life and mass culture, especially in mass-produced print culture. I would never have completed the manuscript without support from many people who read the initial book proposal or helped me publish early versions of two of the book chapters. This group includes Eric Hooglund, Tony Crowley, Saree Makdisi, Robert Myers, and my copy editor and friend Steve Holtje. From the beginning to the end of this process Granville Ganter read drafts and offered his insights, a special effort that was crucial for completion of the book, and for which I am forever grateful. Others who always offered support and patiently listened to my complaints include my friend and colleague, Henry Krips, and my family, Sarah Ann Long, James Long, and Allen Long. My colleagues and friends from Lebanon provided support and critical insight, a group that includes Nisrine Chahine, Asma en Nasser, Romy Lynn Attieh, Huda Fakhreddine, Tamer Amin, Lina Choueiri, Nisrine Sfeir, Gillian Piggott, and John Wall. In the early stages I was assisted by two most intelligent and engaged graduate assistants at the xii | Acknowledgments American University of Beirut, Rania el Turk and Katia Aranji, and I am very grateful for their assistance and friendship. Of course the support of Syracuse University Press and especially Mary Selden Evans and Deanna McCay was critical, while Kay Steinmetz gave me the all-necessary final editorial push. I am also grateful to the Huntington Library for a 2007 summer fellowship and to the Ahmanson Reading Room staff, as well as to Alan Jutzi, who helped me with rare source material about and by Hall Caine, Leonard Smithers, Richard Burton, and T. E. Lawrence. Of course, no part of this project would have been possible without the Aïtels: Fazia, Tassadit, and Lounes. Reading A R A BI A ...