Acknowledgments

Working on this book has been a rewarding experience, in part because of the many friends and colleagues who shared their excitement about literature, genetics, and public policy along the way. I am grateful to them all, and first among them, Ellen Wright Clayton, who supported me in countless ways, both personal and professional, and was my delightful guide through the intricacies of genetics and ELSI. Jim and John Clayton were continual presences in my mind and heart. Others encouraged me with their brilliant conversation and the incalculable gift of their friendship: Alison Booth, George Bradley, Bob Coffey, Susan Stanford Friedman, Margaret Homans, Regenia Gagnier, Marie Griffin, Matt Hall, Keith Meador, Julie Rivkin, Mark Schoenfield, Craig Smyser, Jr., and Carolyn Williams. During a lunch to celebrate the completion of her Ph.D., Lauren Hoffer helped me see how to organize the chapters in this book around its three historical periods. Cari Hovanec and I had stimulating discussions about J. B. S. Haldane and Julian Huxley while she was writing her dissertation. Rachel Teukolsky read drafts of two chapters that touched on Victorian literature and made valuable suggestions.

Colleagues at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, which I directed over the past decade while writing this book, have inspired me by their creativity and vision, especially Elizabeth Meadows, Daniel Cornfield, Alexandre Frenette, Kim Kane, and Steven Tepper. Other friends in the Vanderbilt English Department contributed to making this university an invigorating and collegial environment: Candice Amich, Diana Bellonby, Kate Daniels, Colin Dayan, Alex Dubilet, Jennifer Fay, Teresa Goddu, Jessie Hock, Scott Juengel, Lauren Mitchell, Dana Nelson, Akshya Saxena, Allison Schacter, Kathryn Schwarz, Hortense Spillers, Cecelia Tichi, Ben Tran, and Mark Wollaeger.

A wonderful group of research assistants aided me over the years: Kira Braham, Aiden Eilmus, Ethan Gibbons, Sarah Hagaman, Don Rodrigues, Wietske Smeele, and Erin Spinka. Thanks also go to several members of our first NIH working group on Genetics, Literature, and Popular Culture, especially my incredible co-PI, Priscilla Wald, as well as Lennard Davis, Erin Gentry Lamb, Susan McHugh, Tim Murray, and Heather Schell. Colin Halverson, James Hazel, and Brad Mallon, my colleagues in Vanderbilt’s Center for Excellence in ELSI Research, have been great resources on the topic of genetic privacy. Finally, I am grateful to members of the ELSI community that I have come to value over the years, especially Alta Charo, John Dupré, Lainie Ross, and Susan Wolfe.

Portions of this study first appeared in different form in American Literary History, Critical Quarterly, Medical Humanities, Modernism/modernity, New Literary History, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, and PMLA. I thank the editors and publishers of those journals for permission to reprint. Work on several chapters was supported by funds from the NIH for Vanderbilt’s Center for Genetic Privacy and Identity in Community Settings, 5RM1HG009034.