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A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s Like Elizabeth d’Espérance, I feel that the participation of many others made this project materialize, and those people are from every aspect of my life, professional and personal. First, I would like to thank my mother, Eileen Tromp, without whose warm nurturance, love, and free childcare, years of archival research might have gathered a great deal of dust on my shelves before the book could be completed. The exquisitely professional and generous help of the Women’s Studies Program secretary, Sandy Spence, made my job easier every day and made directing Women’s Studies and writing this book simultaneously possible. Without her, there would be dozens of things I couldn’t do. The anonymous readers for SUNY Press provided me with genuinely valuable feedback—their insights were key in the revision of this book.We are fortunate to have such a generous community of scholars inVictorian Studies. James Peltz at SUNY was always responsive, professional, and kind as was Laurie Searl in Production.The insights of Pamela Gilbert, the series editor for SUNY, were very useful and, again, helped me to make this a better book. Sandy Runzo graciously read an early draft of the first chapter and helped me sharpen my focus from the days that I began writing, James Epstein kindly did the same for the sixth, and Lynne Bonenberger gave me detailed sentence-level commentary throughout. Jim Davis was my quirky grammar question go-to man, and Mathew Chacko’s fine critical eye helped me locate the strengths and weaknesses of the earliest work I did on this project and kept me intellectually honest. The generous financial support supplied by Denison University made the years of research in small archives, Spiritualist colleges and colonies, and far away research libraries possible. Keith Boone—without whom this book would have no pictures of ghosts—and David Anderson consistently helped me find the resources that made this project come to life.The Women’s Studies Committee , whose wisdom, insight, and kindness guide me in so many ways, has helped make this book possible, particularly Toni King, Mary Tuominen, and Barbara Fultner. My dear home community, the English Department, has done x i the same. My students at Denison have consistently been a delight and inspiration . I extend a special thanks to those in the “Haunted Houses” and “Victorian Oddities” seminars and to Anna Michelsen, who loaned me her copy of The Fatal Three. The librarians, administrators, and staff at the British Library, the Hartley Library at the University of Southampton, the Emma Hardinge Britten Library at Stansted College, the Trinity Library at Cambridge, the Society for Psychical Research, and especially the custodians of the Mount-Temple papers at the Hartley, the Broad Papers at the Trinity Library, were crucial in uncovering and deciphering all the primary documents that serve as the basis for this book. Everywhere people were unstinting with their time and generous with their support.Without the help of these librarians and the kind Jane Podgorski at the Spiritualists’ National Union, I might not have discovered all of these crucial documents. I will always be grateful for the patience of those librarians who helped me decipher the nineteenth-century handwriting in the letters and diaries of the collections they tended. I also want to thank the nurses and doctors at the James Cancer Hospital, who, for two years, day after day, generously listened to me work through my thinking about this project while they cared for my father and extended his life. I will always be grateful for the friendship of Mary Tromp, Teresa P. Reed, Samantha Goldstein, Susan Woltman, Kim Riley, Elena Tuhy, and Stephanie Becker and their role in my life and work. I will always be indebted to Elizabeth Langland for her part in my intellectual development and to Jacob Hans Tromp Chacko for the inspiration he provides. I can’t close without thanking the delightful staff at Caribou Coffee and the warm-hearted folks who shared kids stories at theVillage Coffee. Gallons of decaf mocha lattes fueled this project. I did virtually all my writing and revision in these two coffee shops.They never bedgrudged me a four-hour seat and gave me plenty of nonacademic encouragement. AGTG.“It is my joy to honor you in all I do.” A portion of chapter 1 appeared in a different form as “Spirited Sexuality” in Victorian Literature and Culture...

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