Sandra M. Gustafson - Eloquence Is Power: Oratory and Performance in Early America

This book began as a dissertation written under the direction of the late Jenny Franchot, whose intellectual vibrancy, acumen, and enthusiasm remain among my most important influences. Also at Berkeley, Mitchell Breitwieser and Lawrence Levine provided crucial support and guidance. At the University of Notre Dame, Christopher Fox has been an unflagging mentor and friend who as department chair granted the leaves that made it possible for me to produce the book that I wished to write. My colleagues Barbara Green, Julia Douthwaite, and Glenn Hendler have been good friends, valuable interlocutors, and incisive critics.

The scholars at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture provided a road map to the scholarship of early America during my two years there. Fredrika J. Teute has been a rigorous and creative editor. M. Kathryn Burdette has polished my prose and sought the perfect balance between substance and brevity in the notes. Sally Masons warmth and good cheer have helped me through some difficult times and buoyed me in the good ones.

A number of people have inspired me with their examples and encouraged me by their interest, among them Jay Fliegelman, David D. Hall, Janice Knight, David S. Shields, and Frank Shuffelton. Adam Potkays work intersected with mine in a particularly felicitous way, while Alfred Young shared my enthusiasm for Deborah Sampson Gannett. Writing groups and workshops at the Institute, Berkeley, Notre Dame, and in Chicago have given me valuable feedback on individual chapters. Two medievalist friends, Laura Severt King and Willis Johnson, have helped me keep my sense of humor and equilibrium.

A number of sources have contributed in a monetary way to the production of this book. My Institute postdoctoral fellowship was partially funded by the NEH. Earlier, I had fellowship support from UCBerkeley, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and Phi Beta Kappa. I am grateful to all of these institutions for their financial support and for the confidence they continue to show in humanities scholarship.

Sections of Chapter 1 are adapted from Jonathan Edwards and the Reconstruction of Feminine Speech, American Literary History, VI (1994), 185212. I thank Oxford University Press for permission to reprint this article in modified form.

Throughout the making of this book, John L. and Ellen Gustafson have been unfailingly supportive. Their love and confidence are invaluable. Allene Gustafson has nurtured my historical sense with her experience of nearly a century and nourished me with her affection. John A. Gustafsons wit and fine scholarship have set me a worthy example. Eric Ginsburg has taught me that the two cultures of science and the humanities can indeed be wed, with the help of some time spent in the wilderness.

Finally, this book is dedicated to the memory of my brother Stephen Gustafson, who died just as the book began to emerge from the dissertation, and to his nephew and namesake Tobias Stephen Ginsburg, who was born as it was nearing completion. The unexpected loss of Steve and the joy of Tobiass arrival mark every page for me.