In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Editor's Fence ELT's Book Reviews: I'd like to take a moment to reflect on our reviews. As you may recall, we enlarged the review sections with Volume 26 in 1983. Production -related matters played their customary role, limiting the selection we could offer, but the results were respectable. ELT reviewed 38 titles. During the last two years, however, unforeseen changes—tireless companions—have advanced apparently everyone's desire for a more thorough survey of books in the field. In 1986 the practice of what is ironically called "desktop publishing" (it's more forbidding than the facile term suggests) helped create an attractive format and additional space. This serendipity from the mysterious cosmos of microcomputers and laser printers has been nicely balanced with factors more worthy of comment: ELTs auspicious move to University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the services of a new printer, Thomson-Shore, who makes it possible to publish over 500 pages annually. I should add that Thomson-Shore prints the journal on "acid-free" paper, ostensibly a minor point but significant to those who care about the quality and longevity of book and magazinemaking . Overall these changes have worked together harmoniously with a sanguine effect on reviews. Indeed, this year we reviewed approximately 115 titles. You might just consider the range of authors in the review section of this issue—from Oscar to Somerset. To my mind the broader reach of the reviews is noteworthy in at least two respects. It offers us a valuable estimation of critical interests and changing approaches, and it appropriately reflects the fertile diversity of the 1880-1920 period. The latter I find especially satisfying. I enjoy the many hours that go into corresponding with reviewers and publishing their work, though of course I've learned that minor hazards accompany my efforts. Two come to mind. I'm perplexed (slightly dyspeptic is more accurate ) when a reviewer takes a book and never writes a review, never responds to my subsequent enquiries, never even returns the book. (Surely if they knew, the author and his publisher would be more than slightly dyspeptic.) And perhaps you won't be surprised to hear that on occasion a scholar becomes quite put off with me when his or her book receives an unfavorable critique. I understand. It's painful after so much industry has gone into researching and writing a book. But then editing and publishing reviews is not an uncomplicated process. I do my level best to follow the ecumenical guidelines: to locate able, fair-minded reviewers; to let them have their say once I've committed to sending them a book; to maintain a professional tone in the review sections. 261 The heart of this reflection is to give sincere thanks to all our reviewers during the past five years who have generously shared their knowledge and their time. They don't receive any money, and usually promotion committees give precious little credit to review writing. Certainly there are things amiss in academia, as almost every issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education reminds us. Everyone has a list of grievances—short or long. Nevertheless, I believe we may find quiet reassurance in the generally unselfish temper of scholarly reviewing. ELT Press: Cooperation continues to be the keynote. Because of your efforts, word is getting around. The first two titles are available and we've distributed about half the printings of 500 each. We need to do better. In time hopefully all copies will be sold. Please, make sure your library is ordering ELT Press titles. Your assistance is essential to the success of this nonproift press. Arthur Symons: A Bibliography is scheduled for publication in August 1989. Professor Case and I are most interested in reading completed manuscripts, particularly bio-critical studies. Include a cover letter that outlines the intent of your work. We must decline books on Conrad, Hardy, Joyce, Lawrence, Woolf, James, or Yeats. Announcements Call for Papers: Prose Studies will feature a special issue, Prophets of a New Life: Edward Carpenter and British Radical Thought, 1880-1930. Papers are invited on any aspect of Carpenter's writing or its relation to the various movements in which...

pdf

Share