In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Acknowledgments Any academic undertaking involves a cooperative effort. This book could not have been undertaken or brought to its conclusion without assistance from various quarters, financial and personal. First and foremost I am greatly indebted to the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung for granting me a two-year leave of absence for this research. The Charlotte Bühler-Habilitationsstipendium provided me with the financial support I needed for research, travels, and conferences . Thankfully, it also allowed me to work at my own pace without having to devote time to teaching or administration. With their support I was able to travel to Washington, D.C., and Nashville, Tennessee, for research and to attend conferences in Graz, Innsbruck, and Münster. I thank the Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik at my home university in Salzburg for encouraging me in this project, writing letters of recommendation , and giving me space for a quiet withdrawal. I am much indebted to Leo Truchlar, who was dean of Humanities at that time, for his support and careful comments. I am also grateful to my colleagues at the Institut, Dorothea Steiner, Norbert Müller, Holger Klein, and Sabine Coelsch-Foisner. My colleagues from other disciplines, especially Elisabeth Schreiner, Gabriele Blaikner-Hohenwart, and Angela Birner, reassured me on this project every step of the way. I am indebted to Derek de Silva, incorruptible arbiter of literary quality. My thanks extend to Geoffrey Howes for invaluable advice. Without the help of Linda Reschen, expert reader, matchless stylist, and scrupulous copyreader, this manuscript would be in much worse shape. I also thank Gudrun Grabher (University of Innsbruck) and Fritz Gysin (University of Bern) for the long and helpful reviews of the study. I wish to acknowledge my debt to the expertise of Nancy Grayson at the University of Georgia Press and her wonderfully competent editors Jon Davies, Jennifer Reichlin, and Daniel A. Simon. Many of their suggestions influenced the revision of the original manuscript. Outside of Salzburg, I have found help at the Library of Congress and the ix x Acknowledgments Moorland-Spingarn Research Center in Washington, D.C., the Fisk University Special Collections in Nashville, and Mugar Library in Boston. I give special credit to the expertise of Beth M. Howse at Fisk and Leida I. Torres at the Moorland-Spingarn Center. Help has been extended to me by John C. Johnson of the Special Collections department at Mugar Library and Alice Tucker of the Perkins Library, Duke University. The knowledgeable staff at the Salzburg University Library have been instrumental in facilitating access to the many books and articles I needed. I have also received funds from the Stiftungs- und Foerderungsgesellschaft der Paris-Londron-Universität Salzburg. Special thanks go to my friends and colleagues from CAAR (Collegium for African American Research). Over the years, CAAR conferences have become to me important forums of communication, intellectual discourse, and stimulating talks. Maria Diedrich, Fritz Gysin, Justine Tally, Christopher Mulvey, Carl Pedersen, Giulia Fabi, Paul Spickard, Walter Hölbling, Clara Juncker, Geoff Pitcher, and many others have extended invaluable advice and encouragement. Ronald and Abby Johnson and John David Smith have helped with rare bibliographic items. At CAAR conferences, I have had the opportunity to present my ideas and defend my theses. In the era of the Internet, e-mail correspondence has become vitally important as a source of information and a means of keeping in contact. The one message that turned out to be more important than any others was sent to me by John Cullen Gruesser, editor of the first collection about Hopkins. He offered his help and has never turned me down when I needed assistance. I thank him for reading the very first version of this book and sending it back with so many comments. Many hours of writing were spent in my quiet attic in a busy household. It is my heart’s desire here to include in my thanks five lovely children, all nearly of one age, who took over the kitchen and a lot of other chores so that I could be upstairs. And the most meaningful person always and ever continues to be Hans, unwavering in his loyalty and encouragement. Earlier versions of parts of this study appeared as follows: “Agitation in the Family: Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition and Pauline E. Hopkins’ Contending Forces,” in The Self at Risk in English Literature and Other Landscapes: Honoring Brigitte Scheer-Schäzler on the Occasion of...

Share