Battling Nell: The Life of Southern Journalist Cornelia Battle Lewis, 1893--1956

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply indebted to the many librarians and archivists who assisted me in my research. At the University of North Carolina’s Southern Historical Collection reference librarian Matthew Turi, university archivist Janis Holder, and the staff in the Manuscripts Department provided invaluable assistance. At the North Carolina Collection curator Robert Anthony, reference associate Harry McKown, and photographic archive assistant Keith Longiotti aided my research. Within the North Carolina State Archives state archivist Dick Lankford , archivist Larry Odzak, and nontextual materials archivist Kim Cumber provided vital help. At the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library director Mike Plunkett and reference coordinator Margaret Hrabe furnished important assistance. The staff at Duke University’s William R. Perkins Library generously made its holdings available to me. The excellent librarians and archivists at the schools and colleges Nell Battle Lewis attended patiently worked with me throughout many research trips. I am deeply grateful for the expertise provided me by Diana Williams, director of the Kenan Library at St. Mary’s School; Tara Olivero, special collections librarian and college archivist at Goucher College; and Nanci Young, college archivist at Smith College. At James Madison University, Ralph Alberico, dean of libraries and educational technologies; Mikki Butcher, interlibrary loan manager; and Kate Worley, reserves/periodicals coordinator, provided me with access to their collections, heroically managed to produce obscure material via interlibrary loan, and even purchased special lenses for the microfilm-reading machines to broaden my research. I received funding for this project from the North Caroliniana Society, which awarded me an Archie K. Davis Fellowship. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities generously furnished me with a residence fellowship to facilitate the writing of this book. I appreciate immensely the support the foundation ’s Rob Vaughan, Roberta Culbertson, Ann Spencer, and Carol Hendrix have provided me over a period of many years. David Jeffrey—dean of James Madison University’s College of Arts and Letters, a specialist in southern literature, and a former newspaper reporter— acknowledgments x endorsed my study and oversaw the provision to me of several grants and awards and an educational leave. Steve Anderson, director of the School of Media Arts and Design and a former journalist, took a strong interest in my work and allocated funding to defray my travel expenses. Colleagues Dolores Flamiano, John Gruver, and Dietrich Maune lent their expertise and support to my research and writing. Two of Nell Battle Lewis’s nieces, Martha Stanley and Lottie Woolen, generously consented to interviews and provided me with important information that strengthened my research. I have long admired Louisiana State University Press, and I am gratified that director MaryKatherine Callaway and executive editor John Easterly elected to publish this book. Rand Dotson, senior editor for U.S. history and southern studies, supported my project early on and wisely guided it to completion. Bertram Wyatt-Brown, editor of the Southern Biography Series, made many useful suggestions and influenced my work through his prodigious and important scholarship. I count myself fortunate to have produced two books for the series under his guidance. Julian Pleasants, professor emeritus at the University of Florida’s History Department, thoroughly reviewed my manuscript for the press and encouraged me to make revisions that decidedly strengthened its quality. Elizabeth Gratch, with meticulous attention to detail, copyedited the manuscript and made many important changes that vastly improved its quality. Throughout my academic career I have been fortunate to have friends and mentors such as Maurice Berube, eminent scholar emeritus of Urban Services at Old Dominion University, and Robert Mason, a former editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, who introduced me to scholarship and the study of southern journalism and who unfailingly encouraged my efforts. Mr. Mason, who died in 2001, knew many of the key figures in this book intimately and aided my research. My father, Edwin Leidholdt, who died several years before this project was completed, continues to serve as my role model and is continually in my thoughts. A number of remarkable women have helped shape my life and have contributed greatly to my ability to author this study, my first biography of a female southern journalist. My paternal grandmother, Anna Leidholdt, a German immigrant, courageously held her family together in poverty and throughout difficult circumstances. My maternal grandmother, Pearl Crowgey, a mathematics and Latin teacher, possessed a brilliant mind and boundless wisdom. acknowledgments xi My sister, Dorchen...