How does one speak about a great mentor, to whom one owes intellectual, emotional, and energetic debts? How does one begin to write about a deep and intensely personal relationship, to share the numbing throb of grief, in unclichéd terms, and leave oneself open and vulnerable to the pain of memory? Since becoming Distinguished Professor Jane Marcus's graduate student in 2007, I would note things to myself to share later with Jane in order to process and discuss. In London, my e-mails to Jane from the archives were like my travel logs. This year at the International Virginia Woolf Society Conference, I found myself cataloguing the conference for her as I always would, taking notes on things she would have liked. Normally, I would return from the conference and she would say, “Tell me everything.” “There was an art exhibition, Jane, inspired by Woolf 's ‘Mark on the Wall,’ that you would have loved, especially this piece called ‘Body Dots (For Claude Cahun)’ by Maxene White,” I would have said, and she would have had some amazing piece of information or some wonderful story about Claude Cahun.

The world has suffered a great loss with the passing of Jane Marcus. It is in recognition of her singularity of existence, the substantial way in which she contributed to so many discourses, communities, and students, the expansive and inspiring way that she transformed my own life, that I feel a deep sadness, a gaping abyss of loneliness, but I also feel profound gratitude. I feel incredible gratitude for having been her student, for having known her, and for having had the opportunity to love her. I feel grateful to both Jane and her husband Michael Marcus for adopting me as a stray graduate student, hosting me in their warm and lovely home (Jane said to me once, “I have the best apartment in New York”—and she did. It is a converted Masonic Lodge), and for giving me an image of a united, influential, mutually supportive academic couple who both pursued ambitious and successful careers. I thank them for including me vicariously in their family, for sharing stories and pictures of their children and grandchildren. I feel very privileged to have had these experiences with both of them, and it is a great honor to be asked to speak and write on Jane's behalf.