Our Sisters' Keepers: Nineteenth-Century Benevolence Literature by American Women

Preface

While this book deals with connections between nineteenth-century women, the idea of this project derived from a connection established between two twenty-¤rst-century women. Finding ourselves in Montana after completing our respective Midwest graduate school experiences , we stumbled upon each other by accident and discovered, to our amazement, that we were “scholarly sisters”: with similar training, similar interests, and similar attitudes toward our ¤eld of nineteenth-century American women writers. The result of this discovery was a panel on “Theories of Poverty Relief by Late-Nineteenth-Century Fiction Writers,” which we organized for a conference held by the Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW), in San Antonio in February 2001. Two of our contributors, Karen Tracey and Monika Elbert, were also on that panel, and the idea for this book was born. The collaboration process has been somewhat surprising and highly enjoyable. We found our different strengths complemented each other’s, and while most of our writing has been done separately, drafting and redrafting each other’s prose, on occasion we wrote side by side at one computer, grappling for the right words. In addition, then, to each other, there are a number of people whom we would like to acknowledge who have helped this project come to fruition. We would like to mention our early mentors who inspired our Preface approaches to nineteenth-century women writers: for Jill, Nina Baym; for Debra, Dale Bauer and Jeffrey Steele. We would also like to thank the various people who encouraged us on this particular project, and who graciously answered our emails when we needed advice along the way: these include Sharon Harris, Nellie McKay, Frances Foster, Rochelle Johnson, Karen Offen, Lisa Long, and members of the SSAWW listserv. Our work in general owes a great deal to SSAWW, not just because it sponsored that ¤rst conference, but because it is an organization that continues to foster inspiring connections between scholars of women’s writing across variances of region, institution, rank, and status. Indeed, a good portion of the contributors in this volume are active members of SSAWW. Our thanks also to the staff and readers of The University of Alabama Press for their ¤ne suggestions. We would also like to extend our gratitude to those who supported us on a daily basis at home in Montana. Jill would like especially to mention her colleagues in English and Women’s Studies who have encouraged her in this project. Debra would like to thank John Thomas, reference librarian at the Corette Library at Carroll College, whose help¤nding materials through interlibrary loan was crucial to her research. She would also like to acknowledge the members of her writing group, Lauri Fahlberg, Charlotte Jones, Annette Moran, and Rebecca Stanfel, who encouraged this work from its inception and are always ready with good advice for ¤nding time to write as well as time to relax. Finally, we would also like to thank our family and friends for their support of this project and, more important, their support of us. Jill would like to thank Brady and Emma for their love, encouragement, and humor. Debra would like to thank Jerry Foley, for encouraging her to work when all she wanted to do was talk about relationships. And thanks to her parents, Norma Bernardi and Remo Bernardi, and her friends Nancy Meyers, Rocco Marinaccio, and Kay Satre, for always af-¤rming her work and life. x Preface Our Sisters’ Keepers ...