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Acknowledgments It may reflect poorly on my character that I wrote a book about the loss of happy homelands while living in a number of delightful places. I started this project at the University of Virginia under the supervision of James Nohrnberg, Gordon Braden, and Katharine Eisaman Maus. It is hard to imagine a trio of scholars more impressively learned and eclectic in their approaches and temperaments. Each of them has taught me unique lessons that continue to shape my teaching and scholarship. During the formative stages of the project, Jennifer Wicke offered her characteristically incisive advice, and she has remained a stalwart ally and mentor. I will always cherish the camaraderie and intellectual excitement I shared with my fellow graduate students at Virginia. Michael Genovese, Omaar Hena, David Sigler, and I frequently transformed the Shebeen pub in Charlottesville into a salon where we discussed one another’s work. Sara Bryant arrived at UVa just as I was starting this project and bore with me patiently as I completed it. She has continued to put up with my antics as I have embarked upon life as an assistant professor. Other friends—too numerous to list here—made my time at Virginia a particularly happy one. viii Acknowledgments The English department at Queens College, CUNY, was a wonderful place to teach, to learn, and to write as an assistant professor. My fellow early modernists Richard McCoy and Carrie Hintz welcomed me graciously into the fold; I also thank Nancy Comley, Tom Frosch, Duncan Faherty, Wayne Moreland, and John Weir. Andrea Walkden and Amy Wan remain close friends who make me feel welcome every time I return to New York. During my time at CUNY, I had the good fortune to meet Joe Wittreich, and I became one of the many Miltonists who have benefited from his wisdom and generosity. I thank him even as I continue to accrue debts of gratitude to him. During all of June 2008 I was able to work at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign thanks to the John “Bud” Velde Visiting Scholar Program. The library’s impressive collection was matched by its superb staff. I thank Valerie Hotchkiss, Alvan Bregman, and Dennis Sears for their kind assistance. At UIUC I met Feisal G. Mohamed, who continues to inform my thinking through his scholarship and informal exchanges. I am grateful to Feisal for inviting me back to UIUC to participate in the English department’s early modern workshop group in 2009. At Swarthmore College, my current professional home, I am lucky to be part of a department that fosters productivity and collegiality in equal measure. I am grateful to the entire department, and I single out for thanks Peter Schmidt, my former chair, and Nora Johnson, my current chair and senior early modernist. Rachel Buurma and Betsy Bolton provided muchneeded advice as I completed and revised my book. I also thank the various members of Swarthmore’s interdisciplinary junior faculty writing group, which continues to be a source of enrichment and conviviality. Outside of Swarthmore, the Philadelphia-area Works in Progress group has provided one of the most vibrant intellectual communities I have encountered anywhere. Milton’s writings suggest that happy homelands may be metaphorical or virtual rather than real places, and my experiences have confirmed this. I benefit from exchanges with a community of scholars across the country, including Penelope Anderson, Brooke Conti, and Tobias Gregory. David Hawkes, Thomas Luxon, Shannon Miller, and Kristen Poole have been gracious enough to wade through much of my work, and I am grateful Acknowledgments ix to them for their thoughtful responses. I am especially indebted to Steve Fallon, who helped guide the book to port during its final stages. I thank Peter Potter at Cornell University Press for his interest in this project and Karen Hwa for seeing the book through to completion; Amanda Heller copyedited the manuscript patiently and meticulously. An early version of chapter 1 appeared as “Nation, Empire, and the Strange Fire of the Tartars” in Milton Studies 47 (2008): 118–44. A version of chapter 2 was published as “The Country Estate and the Indies (East and West): The Shifting Scene of Eden in Paradise Lost” in Modern Philology 108 (2010): 199–223, © 2010 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. I thank Duquesne University Press and the University of Chicago Press for their permission to reprint these materials here. And the last shall be...

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