In Memory of Michael Kiskis: Teacher, Scholar, and Friend

In addition to its many other human consequences, the Great Recession has affected American literary studies. For budgetary reasons, American Transcendental Quarterly suspended publication at the end of 2008, joining such journals as Studies in Short Fiction and Colby Quarterly in archives where scholarly reviews go to die. The demise of journals and the Sturm und Drang in publishing in general and academic publishing in particular raises a troubling question: how will these trends, if they continue, affect hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions in the future?

I should touch here on one other issue specific to the annual: the title of Chapter 21. Several years ago David Nordloh and I, as the editors of AmLS in alternating years, changed it from the off-putting "Foreign Scholarship" to the cumbersome "Scholarship in Languages Other Than English." The change solved one problem—excellent scholarship, especially Spanish-language scholarship published in the United States, should never be "foreign"—but it exposed another. Much of the American literary scholarship published in Europe and Japan and elsewhere appears in English. This scholarship, largely unavailable to academics in America, resists organization by both language group (too inclusive) and geographical region (too exclusive). Professor Nordloh and I face a Hobson's choice of remedies to the problem. After discussing it, we have chosen to rename Chapter 21 "International Scholarship" and continue with the sections ambiguously titled "French Contributions," "Spanish Contributions," "German Contributions," and so on, which discuss the best of a vast body of scholarship in a reasonably organized and accessible way.

A valedictory word of appreciation to the scholars who are retiring from the roster of contributors with this volume: William Pannapacker, Theresa Towner, Jim Egan, Dorothy Chansky, Jonathan Chambers, and Gary L. Stonum. Kudos to all of you. I extend my special thanks to William J. Scheick, who is retiring from Chapter 11, "Literature to 1800," after 31 years. I have had the privilege of working with Bill since 1994, and Professor Nordloh and I can only recruit his successor, never his replacement.

Thanks, too, to Helen Slavin and the staff of MLA Bibliographic Information Services in making available a prepublication version of the MLA Bibliography. Professor Nordloh and I also acknowledge the support of the University of New Mexico and Indiana University in providing us with resources, especially library and information services. I am especially grateful to Terri Fizer, Cynthia Gurganus, and other members of the Duke University Press staff for coordinating production of this volume. Authors and publishers can help assure the thoroughness of AmLS coverage by directing offprints and review copies to Professor Nordloh at 495 Lake Dornoch Drive, Pinehurst, NC 28374.