Our Coquettes: Capacious Desire in the Eighteenth Century

Acknowledgments

vii Acknowledgments Most of Our Coquettes was written during a year’s fellowship at the National Humanities Center, and I am immensely grateful to the Jessie Ball duPont Religious, Charitable, and Educational Fund for making that fellowship possible. Further research at the Huntington Library was supported by a Frank Hideo Kono Fellowship and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship. The project was also generously supported by several Glenn Grants from Washington and Lee University. These fellowships and grants were most valuable in enabling me to connect with an array of extraordinary people, without whose assistance this book never could have been written. I am indebted to each member of the National Humanities Center’s remarkable staff; I especially benefited from the friendly support of Kent Mullikin, Eliza Robertson, and Lois Whittington . And I warmly thank my delightful fellow NHC fellows, particularly those who directly contributed to the shape of this book by discussing ideas, sharing knowledge, and/or reading drafts: Scott Casper, Linda Colley , Madeleine Dobie, Catherine Gallagher, Cynthia Herrup, Mary Kinzie, Cara Robertson, and Phillip Rupprecht. Above all, I thank Peter Mallios and Paul Saint-Amour for consistently insightful responses to the bookin -progress and for multiple, generous readings of early chapter drafts. The best ideas in this project were developed in conversation with these two splendid interlocutors, the best writing inspired by my feeble efforts to emulate Paul’s brilliant prose. viii E Acknowledgments Several colleagues in eighteenth-century studies offered helpful responses to chapter drafts, conference papers, and parts of chapters. I particularly thank John Beynon, Shelley King, Steve Newman, and Yaël Schlick for their interest and assistance. I am also very grateful to the judges of the 2007 Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for their enthusiasm for my manuscript and their helpful guidance as I prepared to publish it. Working with Ellen Satrom at the University of Virginia Press was a true pleasure: her alacrity, ready knowledge about all things publishing, and unflagging good humor made the production process easy from start to finish. And Ruth Melville was a splendid copy editor, fastidious yet gentle. Closer to home, I am obliged to all of my English department colleagues, particularly Edward Adams, Marc Conner, Genelle Gertz, Suzanne Keen, Holly Pickett, Jim Warren, and Lesley Wheeler, who offered constructive comments on proposals and drafts as well as helpful advice throughout the process of bringing this book to print. Sandy O’Connell also deserves special thanks for her invaluable assistance with several dreary tasks involved in preparing the manuscript. Beyond my department, I had especially useful , challenging discussions about this project with Kara Leibel and Quince Hopkins; I thank them for sharing their dauntlessly interdisciplinary intellects with me. Many wonderful Washington and Lee students, especially those in my fall 2004 English 413 seminar, Meredith Bailey, Paige Thomas, and Jessica Fleming, helped me think through theoretical and methodological matters central to this project. I am especially grateful to the incomparable Taylor Walle, who generously read the complete manuscript in draft and offered astute suggestions for sharpening the central arguments. This project also benefited tremendously from the support of mentors who long ago helped me formulate the dissertation chapter that eventually blossomed into this book. I thank Domna Stanton not only for rigorous readings that pushed me to be a clearer, bolder writer but also for simply asking me, years before this project was conceptualized as such, “What is a coquette?” I am indebted to David Porter and Susan Lanser for incisive feedback on drafts as well as generous support for this project over many years. Most importantly, I thank Valerie Traub, who will always remain my Acknowledgments E ix gold standard for teacher, mentor, reader, colleague, and scholar. I have felt incredibly fortunate to be her student. On a more personal level, I am grateful to my daughter, Eliza, who has been a delight since the moment she was born and made it surprisingly easy for me to balance beginning my life as a parent with finishing this book. I also thank Eliza’s grandparents, Darlene and Karl Braunschneider and Pat and Chuck Matthews, in general for their supportiveness in all of my endeavors , and in particular for providing childcare at several crucial points in the publication process. Two debts loom largest. Melanie Boyd has been invaluable as a terrifically generative brainstorming partner, keen reader, and loyal fan since the earliest inklings of this project. And finally, I can...