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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would never have been possible without the extraordinary dedication and efforts of Helen Hecht. During the more than five years it has taken to uncover, assemble, and edit her late husband’s letters, she has been an indefatigable researcher, the most generous and tireless of correspondents, and a patient and acute reader of almost every phrase that appears in this book. Along with the careful attention she paid to her husband’s letters, I am especially grateful for the improvements she made to the general introduction to the letters and the prefatory matter for the individual chapters. Although final responsibility for the text, including the selection of letters , rests with the editor, it would misrepresent the process to suggest that combing through the correspondence was not, at almost every stage, a shared venture. I might only add that this venture had its origins for me many years earlier when I was a graduate student in a specially memorable seminar that the recently and happily remarried Hecht taught at the University of Rochester in the spring of 1972 on William Butler Yeats and Theodore Roethke. The seminar marked the beginning of a friendship that continued until Hecht’s death in 2004. Editing the letters has not only deepened my knowledge of the person and poet I long admired; it has allowed me to realize anew the many acts of generosity and encouragement he characteristically accorded others. A good number of these individuals have been instrumental in the creation of this volume. J. D. McClatchy has been an indispensible and sagacious resource at every stage of the project, as has been my UCLA colleague and friend Stephen Yenser. On more than one occasion Christopher Ricks, when asked, graciously added his editorial expertise and vast textual knowledge to his general enthusiasm for the project. For offering encouragement and advice along the way, I also want to acknowledge Daniel Albright, Robert Bagg, Gregory Dowling, Stephen Edgar, B. H. Fairchild, Kenneth Gross, John Hollander , Ann Kjellberg, James Longenbach, David Mason, Russ McDonald, Sandra McPherson, the late Barbara Packer, William Pritchard, Peter Sacks, David Sofield, Willard Spiegelman, Mark Strand, and Richard Wilbur. At a crucial moment, John Irwin helped the project gain momentum when he offered to publish a sampling of the letters in the Hopkins Review. The sharp eyes and thoughtful minds of my UCLA English Department colleagues Albert Braunmuller and Stephen Yenser (again) lent a finishing touch to the whole. The work also benefited greatly from the efforts of two intrepid research assistants at UCLA, Tina Ta and Claire Byun. 347 348 Acknowledgments For responding to specific queries, some of considerable length and intricacy, it is a pleasure to acknowledge Colin Burrow, Jean Claude Carron, Elisa Harkness, Adam and Lisa Hecht, Michael Heim, Edward Hirsch, Raymond Knapp, Kathleen Komar, Ivan Majdrakoff, Cameron McCauley, Michael North, Margaret Rosenthal, Chris Van ‘t dack, Irving Weiss, Stephen Werner, and Claire White. For many kindnesses while overseeing our visits to the Hecht archive at Emory University, Kathy Shoemaker deserves special mention, as does Elizabeth Chase, Catherine Fernandez, and the former director of Special Collections, Stephen Enniss, now at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and his wife, Lucy Enniss. The Schuchards, Ron and Keith, graciously extended the hospitality found at the library into the surrounding academic community at Emory. Philip Hoy has been, from the beginning, a keen and helpful advocate of this project, as he is of all things related to Hecht. On difficult questions of inclusion, Evan Hecht served admirably as unofficial consultant. I am also grateful to Diederik Oostidijk for his perceptive comments especially with regard to Hecht’s war letters, and to Mary Jo Salter for always enlightening conversations about poetry and life. In her capacity as the librarian of the Grace M. Hunt Memorial English Reading Room at UCLA, Lynda Tolly was frequently asked to reprise her role as artful tracker of the most arcane references. Jeanette Gilkison continues to be the unflappable, non-pareil of English department administrators. Grants from the Robert Woodruff Library at Emory and from the UCLA Academic Senate helped to fund research necessary for the completion of this book. I am grateful as well for the advice and direction offered by my editor at the Johns Hopkins University Press, Greg Nicholl, and my copyeditor , Maria denBoer. Grant Rosson did a superb job proofreading and preparing the index. Susan Gallick, my companion and adventurer in this and all other things, never tired of participating in conversations about a...

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