Editor's Note

It is with great sadness that I communicate news of the death of Hugh Amory. Having worked with Hugh in the preparation of the first volume of A History of the Book in America, I was personally acquainted with those virtues that inspired awe in many of his contemporaries. Educated in the classics, he could translate Latin and Neo-Latin verse into elegant English meter on sight. Blessed with an extraordinary memory, he could recall off the top of his head details of bibliographical information about thousands of early imprints. As cataloguer of rare books at Harvard, he had personal access to a wealth of printed materials and used this opportunity to build two areas of historical expertise. He was a great scholar of the printed works of Henry Fielding. At the end of his life, he knew more about the transatlantic circulation of books in the seventeenth century to and from North America than any man living. A wit, he could be quite pointed in his critique of historical and literary scholars who made claims about cultural influence without knowing the details of the production, distribution, marketing, and reception of the texts through which that influence was exerted. Readers of this journal unfamiliar with his work might begin by reading "Reinventing the Colonial Book" in The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World.

Tristia narrantur, miris ferit ictibus auresmors inopina meas; totos pavor occupat artus,attonitum reddens animum. Sed nonne fefellitvox aures? Aures animum? Num dicere verafama potest? Heu, vera potest ac dira profari!Mortuus est Praeses; tremor ima per ossa cucurrit.Proh Catabrigiae, proh musis lethifer annus!Nisgrescunt, Harvarde, tuae prae luctibus aedes;Febile vos aulae, campanae flebile linguaMumurat exanimis, respondent flebile muri.Quis cohibere potest lachrymas? Cui lumina sicca?