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Acknowledgments
    My first thanks must go to Jean-Marie Choulet, curator of the Musée de la Dame aux Camélias in the pretty Normandy town of Gacé. A historian and author of the enlightening
Promenades à Paris et en Normandie avec la dame aux camélias
, Jean-Marie entrusted me on our first meeting with his own source material for his book. I came away with a milk crate full of journals, handwritten notes, books, and pamphlets that would save me several months of work. Most valuable of all was an unpublished bibliography of Marie Duplessis compiled as a labor of love by Alain Orgerit. Over the five years that it took to research and write the book, Jean-Marie was always there for me, sending e-mailed replies to my questions, acting as a go-between with other experts, and allowing me privileged access to exhibits in the museum, several of which are included among my illustrations. Jean-Marie’s wife, Colette, was also enormously encouraging and hospitable, and my friendship with the Choulets will long outlast the publication of this book.
    Also of incalculable importance was my researcher Kristine Baril. We met at the Bibliothèque Nationale’s Accueil Général desk, where she still works, and forged an immediate bond. With her impeccable English and passion for all forms of art, Kristine was as much an ideal companion as a heaven-sent collaborator. Her boundless curiosity about Marie Duplessis droveindefatigable online quests that led to several break-throughs in our research. She was doggedly good-natured about helping me to master the Bnf’s impenetrable code system, and her elation at any new discovery was just as intense as my own. I consider Kristine to have been a true partner in this project, and owe her more than I can ever repay.
    I am indebted to Jean-Luc Combe and his former colleague Isabelle Rambaud, Conservatrice générale du patrimoine, for their guidance about French archival procedures; to Jean Hournon for his expertise on nineteenth-century Bougival, and for the Dumas archive he put at my disposal. Rudiger Beermann was a splendidly informed authority on Baden-Baden, while Dagmar Kicherer greatly facilitated my archival research there. Academician Gonzagues St. Bris was responsible for my gaining access to the venerable Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France; William Bortrick of Burke’s Peerage kindly provided me with the genealogical information that an official archivist failed to supply; Eva Guggemos’s assistance at Yale’s Beinecke Library went beyond the call of duty; Guy Peeters generously consulted Spa’s
liste des Etrangers
on my behalf. I owe thanks to Elfgardt and Otmar Wintersteller for their German translations of source material and for their hospitality. Mme Ruault, the owner of the chambres d’hôtes “le Plessis” (a small château that Marie had once coveted herself), provided me with a welcoming, inspirational, and comfortable base in Nonant. At Tricase’s Caffé Cappuccini, Vito, Massimo, and Rocco created the simpatico surroundings in which much of this book was written.
    I owe profound thanks for the information and kindnesses I received at different stages of my research from: Claude Broux, Jean Darnel, Simone Drouin, Elisabeth Leonetti, Annick Tillier, Pierrette Bodin, Atty Lennox, Arnaud Marion, Joy Moorehead, Jasper Rees, Jonathan Keates, Pascale Lafeber, Isabel Lloyd, Michael Saffle, Michael Shipster, Tariana Shor, Nicola Shulmann,Guy Thibault, Anne-Marie de Ponton d’Amécourt, and Alan Walker.
    I would like to record my thanks to the following insti-tutions:
    Alençon’s Archives Départementales de l’Orne
    Archives Départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône, Marseille
    Archives Départementales des Yvelines
    Archives Départementales d’Indre-et-Loire
    Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
    Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Frederick R. Koch Collection), Yale University
    Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Arts du spectacle
    Bibliothèque