I did not do this alone. Many people helped. Thank you to those who helped with research: Michaela hammer, my student research assistant; University of Puget Sound for research funds and the Mellon Sabbatical; Jacqueline Y. Brown at Wilberforce Stokes Library; Elizabeth L. Plummer at Ohio historical Society; Gwenyth G. Haney at Dayton history; Peggy Burge at Collins Library. Thank you to Bread Loaf and Tin house Writers conferences. Thank you to my manuscript readers Colleen McElroy, Kathryn Ma, and Kirsten Menger-Anderson. Thank you to my mentors for unflagging support: James A. Miller, Randall Kenan, Richard Yarborough, Tayari Jones, Helena Maria Viramontes, Lawrence Jackson, Hans Ostrom. Thank you to my sister, Jeanna McClure, for inspiration. Thank you to my agent Stephanie Cabot, and her colleague, Sarah Burnes. I am grateful for the opportunity you gave me. Thank you to my editor, Dawn Davis, for patient guidance. Thanks, again, to my parents who always encouraged my love for books.
Finally, thanks to my best friend and husband, David, for sharing me with this book and these characters for these last few years. Your intellect and honest feedback kept me going when I faltered. And for my little Elena, who taught me what Lizzie’s love for her children meant to her.