Editor’s Farewell

In Early American Literature 34.2, I laid out an editorial prospectus. Its third paragraph read:

New to our field is a cognizance of the complex communications and interactions of the several cultures in early America. To further this awareness, the journal invites discussions treating texts in any of the Native American or European languages concerned with America. EAL has published occasional articles treating Hispanic-American and Franco-American writings. The journal seeks more such work, and it particularly desires innovative treatments of Dutch, German, and Native American writings. A like welcome will greet manuscripts treating issues of empire, race, trade, politics, manners, and religion comparatively among cultures.

The past decade has seen the journal publish scholarship on all of these matters. We have witnessed the maturation of a much more worldly and circumspect knowledge of communications in and about America. Sandra Gustafson takes the editorial chair at an exciting time. Many young scholars have been drawn to early American studies because of its creativity, its explicit concerns with imperialism, and its fascination with cultural communication and conflict. The promise of the future of our field and of this journal is sounded in this issue particularly, devoted to scholarship by graduate students and young assistant professors. All are first publications with this journal.

My last act as editor is to express gratitude to the many scholars who consented to serve as evaluators of submissions over the years. Your expertise and conscientiousness was enough to make a Calvinist disbelieve in the total depravity of mankind. Indeed, it seems to me that we inhabit a community of visible saints.

My special thanks to Shevaun Watson, the managing editor; Daphne O’Brien, the editorial associate; and Suzi Waters and Michelle Coppedge at the University of North Carolina Press.

Sandra, enjoy!