Editor's Fence

I Editor's Fence I New Feature of Review Coverage: Everyone recognizes the increasing number of books published on turn-of-the-century British writers. We have in recent years expanded our review sections to reflect this change, adding space for more coverage. You want reviews of new critical works and biographies. You also appreciate critiques of bibliographies, new editions, reference works, cultural studies, almost any book that could prove useful to your teaching and research. ELT remains receptive to your needs. Most of the reviews are a generous 1200-1500 words. Review essays, such as John Bertolini's on G. B. Shaw in this issue, allow for more analysis and reflection. We also print review essays on important related interests, like Laurie Teal's piece on Hans Walter Gabler's new editions of Joyce's Dubliners and Portrait or Ian Small's discussion of textual editing, both in 38:2.1 know, too, that many of you like to browse Books Received, even though the lists contain many titles unconnected to the field. Recently readers have said that while they value our inclusive approach to new publications, they also believe the coverage could be more thorough. They correctly note that certain books merit more attention than a bare listing in Books Received, though they don't contain enough relevant material for a piece in Book Reviews. Beginning with this volume we print a new feature, Précis. It takes account of those books that fall into the shadow-land between Book Reviews and Books Received. Some titles have one or two chapters that pertain to an author or subject in the 1880-1920 period; some have scattered information that may be of interest; and then some books warrant only a brief notice. Précis is a mixture of description and evaluation—concise summaries of the essential parts of a book that connect with the interests of ELT readers. More than 20 books are covered in the Précis of 38:1 and 38:2. They were written by Louise Kennelly (Phil., Yale University/ M.S. Journalism, Columbia University), a graduate student at UNC Greensboro and ELT editorial assistant. We hope you find this new feature of our book review coverage worthwhile. FENCE & ANNOXJNCEMENTS Preview ELT on Internet: ELTk la Internet has been revamped. Last year I announced that selections of book reviews would appear on UNCG's GOPHERUNCG.EDU concurrently as issues were published. You may now preview excerpts of forthcoming articles, reviews, announcements on conferences, and related matters of interest. This information will be updated as new publications and announcements are scheduled for upcoming issues of the journal. The address is case-sensitive and must be typed as shown below to access ELT on Internet's World Wide Web: http»ywww.uncg.edu/~eng_depVielt.html Perhaps one reward for the fatigue incurred typing the address is the eminently readable on-screen layout the Mosaic format provides Windows and Mac users. Anyone who would like an announcement placed in ELTs niche on Internet should mail a printout and disk to me. Bernard Benstock: This past summer, Bernard Benstock submitted what would turn out to be his last book review for publication in ELT. A short time after he returned proofs I was startled and saddened to hear Bernie had died. Some years ago, when we first expanded the review sections in JSLT, I decided it would be useful to include reviews of books on major figures like James Joyce. Bernie Benstock soon became a regular reviewer of Joycean titles. I counted us very fortunate to have the wisdom and urbane manner of his reviews in the pages of the journal. Those qualities are entirely evident in his last review, printed in 38:2, a detailed and interesting reading of Weldon Thornton's The Antimodernism of Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Over the years I have been personally rewarded with Bemie's professionalism and warm correspondence ; it will remain salient during my time as editor. It was a genuine pleasure to work with him. We offer sincere condolences to Shari Benstock and all Bemie's students and colleagues at the University of Miami. I Announcements...