Anyone who has written a book of this kind knows the large debt owed to
archivists and librarians, to friends and family, to fellow writers and his-
torians. To single out a few, I am grateful first to Sarah Pritchard for her
enthusiasm and bibiliographic guidance at the Library of Congress; to
Jacqueline Goggin for her invaluable help in the manuscript division
there; to Eva Moseley, who allowed me access to the unindexed papers of
the Blackwell Family at the Schlesinger Library; and to Sylvia Buck,
town librarian extraordinaire, for her interest in the project.

I wish to acknowledge as well the invaluable assistance of fellow biog-
raphers Amelia Fry, Ruth Price, and Liva Baker, reserving my most
heartfelt thanks for Carolyn Karcher, whose helpful comments and en-
couragement kept me going. I thank other friends and fellow historians
for reading and commenting on the work in progress, and I am grateful to
Gail Ross, my agent, for sticking with Lucy Stone through the long writ-
ing process. My thanks go also to John Blackwell, who shared his knowl-
edge of the Blackwells with me, and to Elinor Rice Hays and Leslie
Wheeler for their early help and guidance.

I owe a large debt of gratitude to the Library of Congress, which under-
stands the scholar-writer's need for a "room of one's own." To Victoria
Hill, Suzanne Thorin, and especially to Bruce Martin, a large and heart-
felt thank you.

A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enabled me
to travel to New England and examine the collections there. Most of my
support, however, came from my husband and family--who bore with
Lucy Stone and me for the seven years it took to write this book. Thank
you all.

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