Editorial

REVIEWS Editorial Last year's decision of the editorid committee to undertake a programme of reviews has been highly successfd. When this decision was taken, we inherited a handful of books for review then held by John O. Ward as editor of Studium as well as a few miscellaneous items which had been sent to our editor for Parergon. Writing letters to the publishers of books which came to m y attention has produced a gratifying a prompt response from the majority of publishers contacted. Showing awareness of, and interest in, specific works seems to elicit a good reaction. W e are pleased to be able to publish in this issue of Parergon 36 reviews and short notices. As can be seen from the list of books received, we are already holding copies for review of more books than we can redly cope with in the 1990 issue. I intend to continue the practice of writing to publishers of books who have not already been persuaded to support our programme and to chase up publishers who have dready responded positively, so that their participation does not become a 'one off thing. I particularly want to begin an assault on Continentd publishers, starting with French and Itdian publications. So far we have not yet tapped the foreign language scene and this will be a priority in the coming year. Obviously it is desirable to expand the publishing base on which the review programme is founded. Yet this creates its own problems. If some member of A N Z A M R S can find the financid support to enable us to publish two issues per year, that will dleviate the problems. Fdling that, your editor will have to be more ruthless about word length than he was for thisfirstexercise. Some of the long reviews printed below have escaped the cutting knife only because they were received before the response from publishers began to snowbdl and it became apparent that w e had a space problem. For 1990 a strict limit of 500 words will have to be enforced unless the book in quetion is absolutely exceptiond and prior approvd for a longer review has been received. There will have to be more short notices. I envisage that dl reprints, new editions, and translations will have to be reviewed in short notice form only. Even that may not be sufficient and there may have to be a list of books received that canot be reviewed. Members of the Association who are cunently holding books for review in the 1990 issue are asked to observe the word limits strictly, otherwise reviews will have to be returned for editing. It is difficult if no impossible, to do justice to a good and important book in 500 words. However, success does bring its own problems and we must live withing the limitations imposed by those problems - unless, of course, someone has a few thousand dollars to spare. It is important that we publish a review of some sort of as many books received 112 Reviews as possible in order to keep fdth with our suppoitng publishers, otherwise they will desert us. Overlenght reviews jeopardize the publication of a review of abother book. In particular, can I ask reviewers to keep the number of page references to the books being reviewed to an essentid minimum, Findly, an apolgy to our N e w Zedand members. I have made a deliberate attempt to distribute books for review outside the Sydney area but none have found their way across the Tasman as yet. This is partly m y fault. 1 did not obtdn a list of N e w Zedand members until very recently. Many of you I do not know persopdly and consequently do not know your fields od expertise. Unfortunately, I received no books for review this last year in thefieldsof those who responded to my imtid request for expressions of interest in doing reviews. However, now that Paul Sorell has kindly supplied a list of N e w Zedand members and I am receiving information about yourfieldsod expertise, I will try to atone for past sins. N e w expressions of interest in reviewing, particularly...