My generous-hearted early readers include Emily Miller, Susanna Daniel, Samuel Park, Jynne Dilling Martin, Sheena Cook, Eric Bennett, Rory Evans, Anne Morriss, Susan Marrs, Tiernan Sittenfeld, Jo Sittenfeld, and, for being my go-to expert on all things Cincinnati, P.G. Sittenfeld. My parents, Paul and Betsy Sittenfeld, are not (thank goodness) to be confused with Fred and Sally Bennet, though I’m pretty sure they’ve all encountered one another at a cocktail party. My husband, Matt, and our children are my favorite midwesterners.
I enjoyed entertaining conversations and tasty snacks with my Austen book club: Hillary Sale, Maggie Penn, Becky Patel, Stephanie Park Zwicker, Jane Price, Susan Appleton, Susan Stiritz, and Kristin Maher.
I feel great fondness for the people who know more about certain subjects than I do, and who let me pick their brains, often in extensive detail: Ben Hatta, Jute Ramsay, Elizabeth Randolph, Liz Rohrbaugh, Mariagiovanna Baccara, Bruce Hall, Wyman Morriss, Cynthia Wichelman, Craig Zaidman, Stephanie Park Zwicker (again!), Maurizio Corbetta, John Stewart, Jarek Steele, Kris Kleindienst, and Tricia Sanders.
In terms of research, I also want to acknowledge my use of the website for Filoli, in Woodside, California, and of an October 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about spiders by Susan Weich. Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue is in fact a real book by Nicholas M. Teich.
Finally, I hope it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: I am very grateful to Jane Austen, whose books have brought delight to many readers, including me.