Dreaming in Books - uncopy

xiv / Acknowledgments
who have been enthusiastic supporters of my work from the beginning. Jon
Sachs has been an anchor for me ever since crossing the forty- ninth parallel
and has shown me the signifi cance—and the fun—of talking back to institutions.
I also greatly appreciate the support and acknowledgment that I have
received from the Goethe Society of North America, in particular its current
president, Simon Richter. John Lyon has become a valued intellectual interlocutor
on all matters related to the Goethezeit. The members of my print
culture research group, Tom Mole, Nikola von Merveldt, and Susan Dalton,
have pushed my thinking into new terrain at every turn. I have benefi ted in
particular in countless ways from the intellectual and personal generosity of
Tom. He is a stellar exemplar of what collaboration means. I would also like
to thank my editor, Alan Thomas, for his unwavering commitment to my
work and his ability to mingle matters professional with a delightful sense
of ease and enjoyment. Richard Allen, my copyeditor, provided invaluable
assistance in producing a readable fi nished product.
Portions of chapter 5 are reprinted from Women in German Yearbook,
volume 22, by permission of the University of Nebraska Press, copyright
2006 by the University of Nebraska Press. A shorter version of chapter 1
initially appeared as “Rethinking the Print Object: Goethe and the Book of
Everything,” PMLA 121, no. 1 (Jan. 2006): 124–38. My thanks go to Leah
Price and Seth Lerer for including me in their special issue dedicated to
“The History of the Book and the Idea of Literature,” but more importantly
for putting book history at the center of the literary map and, perhaps even
more signifi cantly, vice versa.
My former teachers at Columbia shaped this work in crucial ways, and
I am indebted to the thoughts of my advisor, Dorothea von Mücke, as well
as Andreas Huyssen, Kelly Barry, Stefan Andriopoulos, and Mark Anderson
who made important contributions to earlier stages of this book. Wolf gang
Ernst gave me much needed support in Berlin. I am also deeply appreciative
of Cliff Siskin’s early and continued belief in my work, his always candid
advice, and of course his impeccable timing. He is a model of scholarly
mentoring.
I suspect that everyone can remember at least one teacher who changed
the course of his or her life and who, for this, will never be forgotten. For
me, that teacher is Stanley Corngold, adopted intellectual father fi gure,
lunch mate, and epistolary raconteur. I can think of no higher compliment
to offer a professor of literature than to say: he taught me how to read.
If there is a ghost in this machine, it is Martin Eisner. Given the amount
of words we have exchanged over the years on anything related to books,
literature, and, well, anything, it is at times hard to know where my voice