Читать книгу Westover - Laurie Lisle - Страница 10

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

MANY MORE PEOPLE THAN I CAN EVER THANK PERSONALLY HAVE helped me bring this book into being. Archivist Maria Allen’s assistance has been invaluable. Over the years, she has collected not only memorabilia and other materials but also many stories from alumnae, and it was wonderfully helpful when she sent out a mailing to all the alumnae from the Dillingham decades asking for more of them. She has aided me in innumerable other ways, from showing me around the archive to arranging initial meetings with her classmate, Adele Ervin, and her friend, the late John Ferguson. Adele, the school’s first alumnae secretary, has enriched this history through our talks and by giving me a box of vivid and important letters. During his boyhood in Middlebury, John knew his mother’s close friends—Mary Hillard, Helen LaMonte, and Lucy Pratt—so his reflections, and the letters and papers he gave me, were very revealing.

Maria did not ask me to write this book before proposing the idea to Ann Pollina, who immediately endorsed it. It has been a pleasure to get to know Ann and hear about her exciting ways of educating girls. She has enthusiastically assisted me in every way, giving steadfast support, a number of interviews, any documents I asked for, and allowing me to go where the truth has taken me. My first interview with Joseph Molder, long before I began this book, was followed by another four of them, the last at his lakefront home in Middlebury. True to character, he was always thoughtful, insightful, and honest with me about the goings-on at Westover during three decades.

I am grateful to the nearly one hundred people who have graciously shared their memories and insights with me in person, by telephone, letter, and e-mail. The oldest was Mary Willcox Wiley ’18, and the youngest were girls who were not yet alumnae. Mary, who had just had her hundredth birthday when I visited, had a merry smile and an amazing memory, and when it faltered, she would say, “I can’t quite get hold of that tail feather”; we had a good laugh after I mentioned uniforms, and she replied that she had never seen any “unicorns” at Westover. Since Louise Dillingham’s personal papers have disappeared, I am very glad to have talked at length with her niece, Dorothy Goodwin ’49. Also, my sister and her roommate in the class of 1968 explained to me why they had felt so rebellious. I had fascinating talks with Anita Packard Montgomery ’47, Eunice Strong Groark ’56, Betsy Shirley Michel ’59, Victoria DiSesa ’70, and Mary Gelezunas ’84. Other contributors are too numerous to name, but I have cited them in the endnotes, and my heartfelt thanks go to every one.

I also wish to thank those who let me publish photographs and quote from letters and other writings of their relatives, especially the nephews of Mary Hillard and Helen LaMonte, William H. MacLeish and Edward S. LaMonte. During her very long life, Miss LaMonte was like a one-woman Greek chorus commenting kindly and wisely from afar about the happenings in Middlebury. My thanks go as well to David Norman, a nephew of Patience Norman, and to Mark Schumacher, the son of Joachim Schumacher. Many alumnae kindly shared their youthful writings and the written words of their mothers and fathers, including my classmates, Catherine Drew and Skipper Skelly. I am very pleased that Adrienne Rich and her publisher and John Masefield’s literary executor also granted me permissions. Mary Robbins Hillard, a 1944 memoir published by Bishop John T. Dallas about his longtime friend, and Westover, Elizabeth Choate Spykman’s delightful little 1959 history written for the fiftieth anniversary, were very useful. When working at the archive of Theodate Pope Riddle’s Hill-Stead Museum, the staff generously gave me valuable information, such as the existence of Miss Hillard’s letters to a close friend, August Jaccaci. Thanks also go to all those with offices on the ground floor of Hillard House, who, between my rushed trips up and down the stairs from archive to photocopy machine and back, answered my many questions. It was Kitty Benedict ’52 who suggested that I send the manuscript to Wesleyan University Press, and Charlotte Strick ’91 who designed the book.