Notes From The Director

Professor Susan Shillinglaw stepped down as Director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies last May (2005), and I was honored to be invited to fill in for a time, while certain projects got done and a search could be mounted for a permanent Director. I once performed this duty for two semesters—but that was more than ten years ago, and a great deal has changed in the world of Steinbeck Studies, including the maturation of a journal by that name.

That and much more is owing to Professor Shillinglaw's great labors. For eighteen years she has shepherded the Center, as it moved from the sixth floor of the old Wahlquist Library down to the third floor to join Special Collections, then to temporary quarters, and finally into its new and wonderful digs in the Martin Luther King, Jr., Library, an award-winning joint project of San José State University and the city of San José. Under her leadership the Center expanded its holdings (see the article on Lee Richard Hayman's donation in this combined issue of Steinbeck Studies), acquired new resources, consolidated its collections, and offered scores of programs to scholars, teachers, and students in San José, in California, and across the nation. During the period when the centennial of Steinbeck's birth was being celebrated, she gave dozens of presentations in and out of the U.S. Over the past several years she has also produced a really mind-boggling number of articles, books, edited anthologies, and editions. Moreover, she has fostered the careers of numerous scholars. This spring will see the launch of an online, searchable bibliography on the website of the Center for Steinbeck Studies. You can find it at www.steinbeck.sjsu.edu.

A major change is also coming to Steinbeck Studies and its subscribers. Beginning with the spring 2006 issue, the journal will merge its operations, editorial boards, and editors with those of The Steinbeck Review. The journal will become a joint function of San José State University and the institutions sponsoring Steinbeck activities, including Brigham Young University in Idaho, Ball State University, and others. Those familiar with both journals will observe that the new "merged" journal (to be titled The Steinbeck Review in order to avoid confusion with the Steinbeck Studies journal published in Japan) combines the best features of both: refereed scholarly articles and reports, numerous illustrations, and "intercalary" sections of the type Professor Shillinglaw included during her editorship of Steinbeck Studies.

Subscription renewal details are included in this issue, so if you haven't already renewed, do so now. You won't want to miss what's coming up, including an essay by Richard Hoffstedt titled "Steamy Steinbeck"!