Foreword

Beginning with its eleventh volume, issued in 1975 and reviewing work published in 1973, American Literary Scholarship has included coverage of relevant material written in other languages. This section of essays, gathered originally under the comprehensive (and now vaguely pejorative) title “Foreign Contributions” and since the early 1990s under the title “Scholarship in Languages Other Than English,” has continued and expanded over the years. The subsections devoted to French, German, Italian, and Scandinavian research have remained constant in this section, although Jean Rivière, Hans Galinsky, Rolando Anzilotti, and Rolf Lundén, the original contributors, have all had several successors since. “Japanese Contributions” was added in 1974, prepared for six years by Keiko Beppu, then alternately by Professor Beppu and Hiroko Sato, and since 1998 by Professor Beppu alone, now preparing the essay every other year. (Professor Beppu, who recently retired from active academic service as a teacher and administrator, is thus the person with the longest association with this series.) A variously titled section covering the scholarship of eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the post-Soviet states was added in 1977, and “Spanish Contributions” in 1988. Certainly the areas of the world addressed in these sections are not the only ones in which interest in American literature is high and research and publication are active, and we are exploring opportunities to broaden our international coverage. Meantime, this feature of the volume, if too little remarked, deepens the vital connections among Americanists as a worldwide community of scholars.

Professor Scharnhorst and I are indebted to all of the essayists, wherever they may be, for their efforts in making AmLS the essential resource it is. New to the roster this year are Suzanne del Gizzo, Chestnut Hill College, who singlehandedly succeeds Hilary K. Justice and Robert W. Trogdon in preparing the “Fitzgerald and Hemingway” chapter, and Jim Egan, Brown University, who now takes up part of the burden of “Literature to 1800,” borne since 1978 by William J. Scheick, the longest-standing American contributor. Everyone participating in the present volume has also agreed to continue—the first time in my two decades of association with the series that there has been no definitive turnover in personnel. There are several temporary interruptions, however. Sarah B. Daugherty has been prevented by a serious family crisis from submitting the “Henry James” chapter this year, but will return to cover both 2006 and 2007 work. Françoise Clary, similarly affected, will also resume “French Contributions” next year. And Matthew Hofer is taking a one-year leave of absence from “Poetry: 1900 to the 1940s” next year to concentrate on another project; Michael Thurston, Smith College, will stand in for him.

I am grateful to David Bagnall and the staff of MLA Bibliographic Information Services for supplying a preprint copy of the 2006 MLA International Bibliography for our use, and to Michelle Clark, Rob Dilworth, Charles Brower, and their colleagues at Duke University Press for their thoroughness, professionalism, and patience in directing the translation of messy electronic manuscripts into a finished volume. Professor Scharnhorst and I are also grateful for the various forms of support we receive from our institutions in our editing and administration of this series. Though I am now formally retired from Indiana University, I continue to particularly benefit from the generous provision of access to library materials and electronic reference resources.

Authors and publishers can assist us in assuring the thoroughness of AmLS coverage by directing offprints and review copies to me at my new location (the professional justification for which is geographical proximity to the offices of the press): 1600 Morganton Rd., L-3, Pinehurst, NC 28374.