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acknowledgments I owe an incalculable debt to the many fine literary historians and critics mentioned in my notes, but especially to Ellen Ballou and Ellery Sedgwick for their landmark studies on American publishing and the Atlantic Monthly. I have benefited from the expertise of librarians at Harvard’s Houghton Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the University of Delaware’s Morris Library. Ben Healy kindly gave me a tour of the Atlantic’s Washington office and Ellie Smith graciously provided facts. An neh senior fellowship and a University of Delaware Faculty Research Enrichment allowed me time and funding for writing. I wish to thank Stan Holwitz and Jonah Straus for their belief in the project; Robert Hirst for information about Mark Twain; Jerry Loving and Ed Folsom for their long support; and Jackson Bryer for his scrupulous reading. I am doubly indebted to Stephen P. Hull for improvements both to the manuscript and to its title. Above all, I am grateful to my husband, Carl Dawson , without whom I would not have completed this book. ...

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