Editor's Letter

EDITOR'S LETTER A regularfeature of the Review will be this briefstatement ofissues and concerns regarding editorial policy and plans for the journal. The Review will soon begin its thirty-fifth year of publication. Material growth and expanded editorial scope reflect the increased number of faculty in languages and literature in the region, the extra-regional membership of the Association, and, most important of all, the matifrity of scholarship of our contributors. Editing the Review has become a very extensive operation, and, to aid in this responsibility, I have constituted an Editorial Board which will assist in providing reliable advice on the contents of the Review. They will join our new Associate Editor and our new Poetry and Fiction Editor who were appointed last summer. This is the first issue containing critical essays that I have had the task of assembling. Some of the material was committed for publication by the Outgoing Editor, Don Nilsen, while some of the articles were accepted since I assumed duties in April 1980. I was surprised to discover at that time that the Review had a very small backfile. Surely this is an unusual circumstance for a scholarly journal and, rather than facing the enormous problem of making room for a backlog, I am now faced with the equally enormous problem as ensuring a steady flow of new submissions that accurately reflect the interests of the membership. I have requested that section chairs of the annual meeting refer their best papers to the Review, and I would like to take this opportunity to encourage submissions from all members. The editorial staff will continue to submit all manuscripts to a careful review. We are particularly interested in submissions that reflect new critical trends in all areas of languages and literature. A word concerning the Convention Issue. The Secretary of the Association, Ingeborg Carlson, has informed all section chairs of the 1981 meeting that program material must conform to a standard format, including the requirement that abstracts be limited to 50-75 words. Members submitting abstracts to section chairs would assist us in preparing accurate and useful program issues by submitting well-written and succinct abstracts. Because of the large number of abstracts involved, should we have to edit and/or cut an abstract, we will not always be able to contact the author in advance of our press deadline. For this reason, abstracts — and program outlines — should be prepared with appropriate care. 190VOL. 34, NO. 4 (FALL 1980) The Executive Director of the RMMLA, Prof. Ingeborg Carlson joins me in expressing our gratitude to Colorado State University and the USAF Academy for their generous support of and work in organizing the meeting in Denver. The following individuals of the USAF Academy deserve special mention: Brigadier General William Orth, Colonel Jack Shuttleworth, Jim Aubrey, Jim Kempf, Mayor Ray Harlan, and Lt. Colonel James Gaston (who served as local program director). Colorado State University faculty who made an equally invaluable contribution are Frank Vattano, James Work, Rosemary Whitaker, and David Lindstrom. Without the work of local arrangements committees, the annual meeting would simply not be able to take place. POST SCRIPT: Essays in Film and the Humanities, a new journal focusing on film and film's connections with the humanities, is soliciting essays for future issues. POST SCRIPT welcomes a broad spectrum of essays, including the actor as auteur, character in film, in fiction and film, or portraiture and film; ensemble acting; réévaluations of seminal essays pertaining to film or film and the humanities ; the response of literature and film to technology; reviews; reappraisals. Other related subjects will be considered. Mss should follow the MLA Handbook. Please submit two copies of all manuscripts and include a SASE if one wishes the material returned. Inquiries, submissions, or subscriptions (individuals, $9.00; institutions , $14.00/yr.) should be directed to: Gerald Duchovnay, Editor, POST SCRIPT, JU Box 26, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FLA 32211. A three-day symposium devoted to the Victorian novelist, George Gissing, will take place in his native town, Wakefield, in Yorkshire, from September 4-6, 1981. This event, which is sponsored by the Gissing Trust, will include a tour of Gissing sites in Wakefield and...