Foreword

Several years ago, upon his retirement from the University of New Mexico, a colleague here bequeathed to me all of his copies of American Literary Scholarship—a run that began with the first volume, issued in 1965, which covered 1963. They rest on a shelf in my office as I write. Those early editions are disarmingly thin, hardly 200 pages long, about the size of a single issue of a major journal, and chapter-authors back then even reviewed some dissertations and conference papers. Ironically, contributors have perforce become more selective over the years even as the annual has grown to its current size. That is, the developments in our discipline over the past forty-five years may be measured in the most superficial sense by the increasing heft of AmLS and the widening breadth of its spine. More to the point, the annual has been from the beginning an indispensable reference tool for Americanists around the world.

As usual, I have depended upon the kindness of strangers and friends in compiling American Literary Scholarship 2007. The editors are grateful in particular to the contributors who are retiring from the annual with this volume: Kristin Boudreau of the University of Georgia, who has written "Early-19th-Century Literature" for the past three years; and Ann Moseley of Texas A&M-Commerce, who has authored the Cather half of "Wharton and Cather" for the past four years. Like all AmLS contributors past and present, they have sacrificed their summers for no more reward than the esteem of their colleagues and a stipend barely sufficient to buy a nice meal. May their rewards be great in their home institutions and on the conference trail. I wish also to thank David Bagnall and the staff of the MLA Bibliographic Information Services for supplying a typesim of the 2007 MLA Bibliography for distribution to contributors, and Terri Fizer, Charles Brower, and other staff at Duke University Press for their help in the production of the annual. They have saved me from many an egregious mistake. I appreciate too the moral and financial support I have received from colleagues and administrators at the University of New Mexico in the preparation of these volumes and the continuing administration of the series.

Authors and publishers can assist us in ensuring that AmLS continues to cover all relevant materials by forwarding offprints and review copies to Professor David Nordloh, 1600 Morganton Rd. L3, Pinehurst, NC 28374.