Anna Letitia Barbauld and Eighteenth-Century Visionary Poetics

Acknowledgments

Ack now ledgments This project would not have been possible without the interest and assistance of several students, colleagues, editors, and readers, all of whom contributed significantly to my efforts to understand Barbauld’s poetry. Because my interest in Barbauld began in the classroom, and developed over a period of years when I was teaching courses on Romantic women poets, my first debt of gratitude is to my graduate students, whose patience, intelligence, dedication, and challenging conversations contributed immeasurably to my efforts to think clearly about Barbauld. Among these students, Andrea Beranek, Nicola Brooke, Michelina Cersosimo, Jade Higa, Timothy Ruppert, Moria Torrington, Matthew Vickless, and Melissa Wehler were especially helpful and supportive. In addition, several present and former colleagues in the Department of English at Duquesne University read sections of the manuscript, assisted with tracking down source materials, answered computer questions, and provided important and patient responses to my many queries about eighteenth-century poetry: these were Bernard Beranek, Laura Engel, John Fried, Kathy Glass, Sue Howard, Joseph Keenan, Jim Purdy, Danielle St. Hilaire, and Samuel Tindall. Christopher Duncan, the dean of the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts, also provided important funding for a research assistant over the course of one summer. Several research assistants—Maureen Gallagher, Shreyashi Mukherjee, and Madhuchhanda Ray Choudhury—were solicitous and prompt in helping me with various aspects of the research. The chair of the Department of Classics at Duquesne, Stephen Newmeyer, provided helpful conversation on matters related to classical literature; two tutors in the classics lab, Michael Coulter and Sarah Whitlock, were helpful in translating parts of Virgil’s Georgics. Nora McBurney and Gabrielle Kokanos provided much efficient and cheerful assistance with printing the manuscript, handling correspondence , and other important matters. Also, Bonnie Badger and John Henderson xvi Acknowledgments offered much patient guidance in helping me with computer and formatting matters. Among the many scholars in the field to whom I am indebted, I am especially grateful to Stephen Behrendt, whose encouragement on an earlier project gave me the confidence to proceed with the present one. Greg Kucich has provided much wonderful support and guidance at times when I most needed them. John Thomson was my first teacher of English literature and remains a wonderful resource of knowledge. I would also be remiss if I did not express my gratitude to Stuart Curran, whose groundbreaking studies of women’s poetry of the long eighteenth century not only make the current project possible but also make possible the work of an entire generation of scholars. I also want to thank the anonymous readers of the present manuscript for their support and encouragement. My deepest and most abiding scholarly debt is to Terence Hoagwood and Joseph Wittreich, who, across the entire span of my career, have been steady friends and unfailing advocates on my behalf. Matthew McAdam, humanities acquisitions editor at the Johns Hopkins University Press, provided much excellent and indispensable advice, especially during the early stages of the project, and M. J. Devaney was superb in editing the manuscript. I also want to thank Deborah Bors for her excellent work preparing the manuscript in its final stages to ensure its professional presentation . Additionally, I thank Tom Broughton-Willett for his meticulous work on the index. Needless to say, any errors or shortcomings in the project are my own and should not in any way be attributed to those who graciously guided and assisted me along the way. Finally, my greatest debt is to Joanna Foster, who, for more than forty years, has been my constant support. Anna Letitia Barbauld and Eighteenth-Century Visionary Poetics This page intentionally left blank ...