Foreword, p. vii-viii

The present volume is the 40th in this continuing series. In his founding foreword to the first volume, covering work published in 1963, James Woodress commented that the more than 1,500 items listed in American literature in the most recent MLA bibliography suggested "a real need for an annual review in which various scholars would survey the past year's work in American literature within their particular areas of competence." Much has changed in 40 years. The number of qualifying items is at least four times larger than in 1963. An annual American Literary Scholarship volume has not expanded in the same proportion, but it has more than doubled, from fewer than 250 pages to more than 500—and the leisurely tone of discussion has mostly given way to tough efficiency. The number of chapters has expanded from the original 17 to 21. The authors included in the essays of Part I are no longer an all-male cast: Margaret Fuller has entered the original chapter on "Emerson, Thoreau, and Transcendentalism," Emily Dickinson joins Whitman in what had been his chapter, and Edith Wharton and Willa Cather have a chapter of their own. The two chapters required to cover 20th-century fiction have become three. These structural alterations suggest the larger and more pervasive changes at the core, not only of American literary study but of American culture. The canon has broadened and deepened, theoretical and critical perspectives abound, and the very stuff that constitutes the object of study is constantly being reconceived. But there are obvious and crucial continuities: I notice among the authors of work discussed this year scholars mentioned in the very first volume, among them Jackson R. Bryer, Louis J. Budd, Hershel Parker, George Monteiro, and James E. Miller Jr. All the more reason, then, for the original purpose set out by James Woodress to be carefully maintained.

The roster of contributors is invariably a mix of continuity and change. New to the current volume are Thomas R. Mitchell of Texas A&M International University ("Hawthorne"), Hilary K. Justice of Illinois State University ("Fitzgerald and Hemingway"), and Robert Sattelmeyer, Georgia State University ("Early-19th-Century Literature"). I step into the chapter on "Late-19th-Century Literature" just once while Michael Kiskis, Elmira College, takes a sabbatical; he returns to this assignment in the 2003 volume. There are several permanent changes for next year. Carol J. Singley, Rutgers University, Camden, and Janis Stout, Texas A&M University, serve as co-authors of "Wharton and Cather," replacing Elsa Nettels. Robert W. Trogdon, Kent State University, joins Hilary Justice in preparing "Fitzgerald and Hemingway." Gregg Camfield, University of the Pacific, takes over "Poetry: 1900 to the 1940s" from E. P. Walkiewicz. Frank Kearful, Universität Bonn, undertakes the chapter on "Poetry: 1940s to the Present," which has been absent from the past two volumes. Michael Porsche, Universität Paderborn, replaces Kearful in preparing the section on "German Contributions." Lene M. Johannessen, University of Bergen, replaces Sandra Lee Kleppe as the Norwegian correspondent for "Scandinavian Contributions." And Antonio Márquez, University of New Mexico, returns to do the section on "Spanish Language Contributions," which last appeared in the 1999 volume. Sincerest thanks to departing friends, warmest welcome to new ones, and gratitude to all contributors for making this project the vital continuing resource it is.

We remind authors and publishers that providing us with offprints and review copies will help to assure that AmLS continues to cover all relevant material. Direct items to David J. Nordloh, Department of English, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405.

The editors are grateful to Indiana University and the University of New Mexico for support of this enterprise, and to the staff of the MLA Center for Bibliographical Services for providing citation records. I especially want to thank Elizabeth Rytting for search and collection help toward the two chapters that were my responsibility this year, Jennifer Feinstein for relentless assistance in checking and indexing, and Pam Morrison and Mindy Conner for transforming messes of pages into a scholarly publication.