-
Acknowledgments
- University of Iowa Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
I owe enormous thanks to the family of Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein for enabling me to complete this book. Irma’s grandson John provided information about her relationship with Carl Sandburg, then put me in touch with his cousin, Ferd. In turn, Ferd gave me Irma’s set of Emerson books with her marginalia and commentaries. These books became another rich source for understanding and interpreting some of the comments Irma made in her diaries. Ferd also put me in contact with his daughter, Nancy, who kindly sent copies of the inscriptions Thornton Wilder wrote in books he had given to Irma. Next, Ferd introduced me to his mother, Irma’s daughter Ruth. Ruth spent three days filling me in on family details, in addition to supplying me with an invaluable booklet in which Irma wrote about the early years of her marriage. Without Ruth’s generosity, a goodly chunk of Irma’s life would have remained a mystery. Ruth also facilitated contact with Irma’s “most favorite of cousins,” Dick. He sent a newspaper clipping documenting her charitable work in 1893, along with the family genealogies he had compiled using data Irma had written herself. The newspaper clipping clarified a number of Irma’s early journal entries that otherwise would have been inexplicable. The genealogies also helped me to fill out the history of early Chicago German Jews. Dick (who has since died, in 2002) also spent a long evening discussing Irma with me so I could be certain my interpretations meshed with his knowledge of her. To protect the privacy of the living members of Irma’s family, I have used no last names but hers. Some of the German words, phrases, and verses included in this book were beyond my ability to translate. Luckily, an extraordinarily resourceful friend, Mary Joyce Rinehart, was able to accomplish what I could not. Her sensitive rendition of Pauline Wengeroff’s preface to volume 2 of Memorien einer Großmutter enriches the chapter note in which it appears. Thanks are also owed to the reviewers whose careful readings of the draft version of this manuscript followed by sound suggestions helped me to make it better, and to Gail Zlatnik for her careful reading followed by sound copyediting. And, of course, I am indebted to Irma, without whom there would have been no book. Acknowledgments ...