I have many people to thank for what has been a project I have spent many years researching and writing. First, I am grateful for the released time and financial support provided by the University of Virginia, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Spain's Ministry of Culture (Ángeles Gutiérrez Fraile, Director of “Cooperación Internacional,” and the at-the-time Subdirector, Javier López Facal), whose assistance enabled me to travel to many libraries and archives in search of materials. I am also grateful for information, materials, and answers to queries provided by Pedro Álvarez de Miranda, Noël M. Valis, Ana Vázquez, John C. Dowling, Russell P. Sebold, Michael Schinasi, Margaret Ballantyne, and my research assistants Jeffrey T. Bersett, Elizabeth Franklin Lewis, Alvin Sherman, and Karen Rauch. My colleague Donald Shaw provided invaluable insights following the reading of various drafts. Additional materials were secured by the impressive Interlibrary Loan Department of the University of Virginia's Alderman Library as well as the librarians at the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, the Hemeroteca Municipal de Madrid, the Biblioteca Municipal de Madrid, New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, the University of Pennsylvania Library, the Oberlin Library, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas. I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to my students at the University of Virginia who have been willing to read non-canonical texts with me and to think about them in fresh ways.