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It is a great pleasure to acknowledge those who supported me in the process of writing this book, and who made it possible for me to complete it. I am indebted to Patrick Scott for introducing me to the study of Victorian popular culture, and to James Hipp and Marc Demarest for their support and friendship. This project began in earnest at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I was fortunate enough to have world-class mentors: Amanda Anderson , Michael Bérubé, Peter Garrett, and Dale Kramer. At that time, cultural studies had emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the American academy. This book is tied to that moment: it owes a great deal to the work of the visiting scholars I was fortunate enough to witness during my time at Illinois. I am indebted to Peter Garrett, Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula Treichler for promoting cultural studies research at the University of Illinois through the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. I was also lucky in having generous, brilliant, and caring peers: these are too numerous to mention, but the members of my dissertation writing group— Stacy Alaimo, Rick Canning, Brady Harrison, Lauren Onkey— deserve special mention for all they taught me. Robert Steltman generously shared his expertise in popular culture with me. Michael Thurston furnished me with a model of the engaged scholar: I learned a lot from him, and still do. I encountered David Chinitz’s work on T. S. Eliot and popular culture at this point in my career; I am grateful that he remains a careful, insightful reader of my Acknowledgments You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. work. And although great cultural studies scholarship was happening all around me, I’m not certain that I would ever have linked it to Victorian studies if Amy Farmer hadn’t encouraged me to make that connection. Thanks, Amy. I am grateful for the institutional support provided by Florida State University during the writing of this book, especially for the boon of a research semester, provided by our dean, Donald J. Foss. The English Department at Florida State has made me feel welcome since I arrived, and I am deeply indebted for all that our department chair, Hunt Hawkins, has done to assist and support my scholarship. The book owes much to intellectual exchanges with my colleagues in the English Department, such as R. M. Berry, Helen Burke, Martin Foys, Robin Goodman, James O’Rourke, W. T. Lhamon, and Daniel J. Vitkus, to name but a few. Their acumen is matched only by their generosity. I am also grateful to those who read portions of the book in manuscript form, especially to Mark Garrett Cooper and Leigh Edwards. I owe Mark special thanks for years of collegial support , and for generously sharing his intellectual expertise. I can take the credit only for my mistakes. Finally, I owe a great deal to the patience, guidance, and support of my editor, David Sanders, who was willing to take a chance on the project when I was seeking a publisher. My anonymous readers all provided essential advice and made the book, I hope, worth reading. xii Acknowledgments You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...

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