My first article on Dorothy May Bradford was published this week in Early American Literature! I am grateful to Sarah Schuetze and Katherine Grandjean for editing this special issue. Like many in the field, I am also devastated by Sarah’s unexpected passing a few weeks ago. She was a generous and constructive editor, and I had looked forward to working with her in the future. My thoughts and prayers are with her friends and family, as well as with all of our colleagues.

I also wrote this piece while on fellowship at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA. Before I include the abstract, I would like to thank the many people who supported this project from its inception:

This project was funded by the Erik H. Erikson Institute at the Austen Riggs Center. I am particularly grateful for the insights and support of Dr. Jane G. Tillman, Dr. Katie Lewis, Alison Lotto, Dr. Kathryn Gallagher, Dr. Elizabeth Weinberg, Lee Watroba, Barbara Keegan, Dr. Jeremy M. Ridenour, and Dr. Eric M. Plakun. I would like to thank everyone at Riggs for their generosity and enthusiasm, without which this project would not have been possible. My thanks also to Arielle McKee, John Raymond, Sarah C. Symans, and Kari Holloway Miller. Finally, I am grateful for the thoughtful and constructive feedback provided by the anonymous reviewers.

Scholarship is collaborative; I am grateful to the many people who have enthusiastically listened to me talk about this project. I’m still working on my book manuscript, tentatively titled The Many Deaths of Dorothy May Bradford: Investing Mental Health, Suicide, and American Myth-Making. Stay tuned for more details!

This spring, I am teaching an Honors Section of the Novel, Rhetoric and Writing, and (my favorite): Early American Literature 1500-1820! Here’s the flyer I made advertising the course on Instagram