Fallen Forests: Emotion, Embodiment, and Ethics in American Women's Environmental Writing, 1781-1924

Acknowledgments

xiii Acknowledgments fallen forests has so many roots that I can only hope to remember a few. My colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro have provided a solid and fruitful ground from which to work. All of my Americanist colleagues, among them Tony Cuda, SallyAnn Ferguson, Christian Moraru, and Noelle Morrissette, helped cover my teaching responsibilities during the time I was on leave to finish drafting and revising, and I am grateful for their support. Some colleagues also read chapter drafts: Mark Rifkin, María Sánchez, and Hepsie Roskelly helped me prune excess and encouraged growth in other areas. Karen Weyler and Mary Ellis Gibson deserve many helpings of chocolate cake for reading multiple drafts of the entire manuscript—and for knowing when to cheer and when to chide. The weekly writing group as a whole have my warm thanks for providing a scholarly environment that feeds both mind and body—perceptive criticism accompanied by cream scones and marmalade, lemon pound cake, and strawberry rhubarb pie. I am grateful for the continuing support of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The College of Arts and Sciences, especially Dean Timothy Johnston, provided a research assignment to enable me to draft the manuscript and, with the unexpected arrival of an neh Fellowship, another to enable me to complete the book. I have been fortunate to have had the best of department heads, Anne Wallace, who has been both encouraging and supportive. The library at the university has, as always, provided outstanding assistance; special thanks to Gaylor Callahan and the interlibrary loan staff. My uncg students, particularly my graduate students, have energized me toward completion. Outside my home institution, other institutions, colleagues, and friends have fostered this project in different ways. Several librarians, archivists, and institutions’ staff helped with obtaining the book’s images: Karen Jania at the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan, Terry Zinn at the Oklahoma Historical Society, Kevin Wilks of the Center for Research xiv Acknowledgments Libraries, Erin Clements Rushing at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Jane Winton at the Boston Public Library, Maryellen Tinsley at the Louis Round Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Jackie Maman at the Art Institute of Chicago. Rachel Cooke at Florida Gulf Coast University’s library provided capable help in a time of immediate need. At various stages, colleagues Annette Kolodny, Rochelle Johnson, and Melody Graulich provided essential encouragement. Claire and Larry Morse and Christian and Camelia Moraru are kind and generous friends who help keep me moving forward. My in-laws, Rick and Judy Chimera, offered a sunny winter home and a quiet office. My cousin, Clint Gove, has patiently tended home and animals when I could not. Special thanks to Cheryl Walker and John Elder for their crucial enthusiasm and support, without which this project would have taken even longer to complete. I am profoundly appreciative of the detailed feedback offered by Annie Ingram and Tina Gianquitto, the manuscript readers for the University of Georgia Press; I have seldom seen such care and thoughtfulness given to readers’ reports. The final product is much better because of their help, though they are not responsible for its shortcomings. Thanks to the press’s efficient production, design, and marketing staff; its helpful managing editor, Jon Davies; and my excellent copyeditor, Joy Margheim. My editor, Nancy Grayson, deserves a medal (or at least a pleasant dinner) for her support and patience. A few people merit special mention, not only for specific help with the project but also for their support over the past twenty years. Paul Lauter has provided encouragement, fellowship, and mentoring that exceed my ability to thank him. Paula Bernat Bennett read the manuscript carefully and provided characteristically incisive criticism; her encouragement and support always make my work better and mean more than I can say. My husband, Chris Chimera, is no mythological creature but an enduring , essential supporter. With him, home is “something you somehow haven’t to deserve.” Fallen Forests has been made possible in part by a fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Humanities; I am grateful for this support and for recognition of the project as part of the “We the People” initiative. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in Fallen Acknowledgments xv Forests do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the...