Cara Robertson - 12 Mar

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As I bring this long project to a close, I am struck by my good fortune. A full accounting would require another book-length work.

First and foremost, I thank my agent, Tina Bennett, for her peerless advocacy, keen eye, and inexhaustible patience (which I tested). In addition to being my first and best reader, she has been a partner in this project for more than fifteen years. Tinas assistant, Svetlana Katz, has been a helpful presence during all that time. Sally Willcox put me in touch with Tina. Leslie Teicholz would have done so. I thank them both!

I am especially grateful to Jonathan Karp for believing in this projecttwiceand for expanding my vision of what might be possible to write. I was also lucky to find in Emily Simonson someone who calmly and kindly shepherded me through the publishing process. Many thanks also to my copy editor, David Courtright, who saved me from countless errors and infelicities, and to production editor Kayley Hoffman, production manager Lisa Erwin, and managing editor Kristen Lemire. The designers Lewelin Polanco and Pete Garceau made it beautiful inside and out.

An unanticipated pleasure of working on this particular case was my time in the basement of the Fall River Historical Society in the company of the omni-talented duo of Michael Martins and Dennis Binette. I am indebted to them and their monumental endeavor, Parallel Lives . Had I spent less time laughing with Dennis, I might have been more productive, but it would have been much less fun. Other local friends, Betsy Denning and Tim Belt, added to the merriment. Thanks also to James Smith for the photo of Lizzies grave. I am honored to have known the late Frank Knowlton Jr., whom I met at my college graduation (and his fifty-fifth reunion), and who invited me to a reenactment of the Borden trial in 1992.

In the course of my research, I met many Bordenologists who shared their time and their thoughts on the case. In particular I am grateful to Shelley Dziedzic, Stefani Koorey, Kat Koorey, Faye Musselman, William Pavao, Len Rebello, and Lee-ann Wilbur. I also appreciate Jeffrey McCormicks willingness to let me ask him questions about the Borden file that he could not answer.

I am grateful for the research assistance of several graduate students who helped me as I struggled to move from the microfilm era to the modern age: Darby Copeland, Chris Brick, Joshua Clough, Claire Payton, and Jessica Malitoris.

This project began its life at Harvard as a senior thesis and was launched with a Pforzheimer Summer Research Grant from the Schlesinger Library. I am especially grateful to Marc Dolan and Alexandra Owen, my faculty advisers, and to all my teachers, at every stage of education. A number deserve special mention for their enduring influence: Barbara Babcock, Christine Bruner, Catherine Clinton, George Fisher, Ellen Fitzpatrick, Joyce Flynn, Lawrence Friedman, Thomas Gray, Anne Harrington, Robert Lamb, Peter Mancall, Nancy Ruttenburg, King Schofield, Thomas Siegel, Eva Sikora, Robert Weisberg, and the incomparable Dame Olwen Hufton. I was similarly fortunate in my mentors in the law: James Browning, Theodor Meron, Harry Pregerson, Byron White, and John Paul Stevens.

The National Humanities Center provided an intellectual home and a community of scholars for which I am profoundly grateful. I benefited from comments on earlier work from a contingent of that convivial bunch: Karen Halttunen, Deborah Harkness, Cynthia Herrup, Lisa Lindsay, Gregg Mittman, Jocelyn Olcott, John Sweet, and Timothy Tyson. I am also grateful to the staff of the center, especially two directors of the fellowships programKent Mullikin and Elizabeth Mansfieldand the fellowship coordinator Lois Whittington.

Friends have helped move this project along in myriad ways. Deborah Cohen, Ann Haskell, Sherry Kramer, Patrick Pacheco, and Sarah Tilton were enthusiastic proponents when I first thought this might be a book and each taught me important lessons about how to tell a story. Alison Aubrejaun, Susan Cleveland-Knowles, Gail Mosse, and Lisa Sitkin joined me for a memorable performance of Lizzie! A Rock Musical in San Jose in 2017 and have been stalwart supporters through the years. Ticky Kennedy and Nick Raposo debriefed me after my Fall River excursions and shared their comprehensive knowledge of southern Massachusetts folkways. Elijah Leed demonstrated the finer points of wood chopping. Josh Bond consistently nudged me in the right direction when I was at risk of faltering.

Other friends read and improved the manuscript: Janet Alexander, Joshua Bond, Scott Casper, Deborah Cohen, Kit Fine, Nikolas Gisborne, Jill Horwitz, Jennifer Kennedy, James Lesher, Caroline Lewis, Quentin Pell, Eleanor Rutledge, Adam Samaha, Eva Sikora, and Ruth Chang (who generously read several iterations). Any errors are my own.

I am more grateful than I can say to my brother, Chip. I could not have completed this book without his support. Finally, I dedicate this book to my parents, to whom I owe my greatest debt and who have my abiding love.

A ARON JAY YOUNG

Cara Robertson began researching the Borden case in 1990 and has been captivated ever since. She holds a BA from Harvard, a PhD in English from Oxford, and a JD from Stanford Law School. She clerked at the Supreme Court of the United States, served as a legal adviser to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and has written for various publications. Her scholarship has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Humanities Center, of which she is a Trustee. The Trial of Lizzie Borden is her first book.

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LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

Inquest upon the Deaths of Andrew J. Borden and Abby D. Borden . Annie M. White, stenographer. Fall River, MA, August 911. Collection of Fall River Historical Society.

Preliminary Hearing: Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Lizzie A. Borden, August 25September 1, 1892. Judge Josiah C. Blaisdell, presiding. District Court, Fall River, MA. Annie White, stenographer. Collection of Fall River Historical Society.