From the Editor

Abstract

From the Editor Elizabeth Lennox Keyser (bio) In introducing volume 26 of Children's Literature, there are many people whom I would like to thank, welcome, and reluctantly bid farewell. First, I am grateful to U. C. Knoepflmacher and Mitzi Myers for editing last year's splendid volume on cross-writing child and adult. I was just enough involved in the project to know how hard the co-editors worked for a period of more than two years, and I had little enough to do with the final product to be able to join in the chorus of praise that I am sure it has inspired. The co-authored introduction to the volume alone should do much to stimulate dialogue and debate as to what constitutes children's literature, its relation to the adult literary canon, and the contribution the study of children's literature can make to cultural studies in general. Anyone who attended the packed session at the end of the 1996 MLA meeting, at which U. C. Knoepflmacher and three other scholars discussed the politics of children's literature within the academy, can confirm that such issues as those raised in Children's Literature 25 are vital for our community. I would also like to thank retiring book review editor John Cech for his fifteen years of service. When I assumed the editorship with volume 22, I relied on John for continuity and support, and I have greatly enjoyed our collaboration over the past five years. Replacing John will be Christine Doyle, who teaches in the English department of Central Connecticut State University. Chris served as an editorial associate for volumes 19 and 20, while in graduate school at the University of Connecticut, and she co-edited volume 21 with fellow graduate students Anne Phillips and Julie Pfeiffer. Thus in a sense continuity is preserved. It is equally gratifying to announce that Julie Pfeiffer has become my colleague at Hollins College and that she will be helping to edit what I hope will be the many volumes of Children's Literature yet to come. Next I would like to offer special thanks to Pamela Harer, who volunteered to prepare the twenty-five-year cumulative index for next year's volume. As long-time subscribers know, Children's Literature has published a five-year index at regular intervals, the last appearing in volume 21. A few years ago Pamela wrote to me, offering to send an index for volumes 1-21 for use in Hollins's children's literature M.A. [End Page vii] program. She sent me another for volumes 1-23, and these proved so useful to our students that, as the time approached for another index to appear in Children's Literature, I thought its readers would also appreciate a cumulative index. Its publication will be cause for celebration of founding editor Francelia Butler's extraordinary vision and of all the contributors, reviewers, editors, and consultants who have enabled it to flourish over the years—in short, of the hundreds of people whose names appear in the index. Finally, I would like to thank the fifty-two consultants who have made the present volume possible. Forty-four manuscripts were submitted for consideration, and a number of them were revised and resubmitted. Many consultants read more than one manuscript or read two or more versions of the same manuscript. In a few instances, the consultants worked directly with the contributors in what became a collaborative effort. I am grateful to both consultants and contributors for their patience and hard work. In contrast to last year's special-topic volume, Children's Literature 26 is a kind of carrier bag, to borrow a term from Anne Lundin's piece on Kate Greenaway's autobiography. Its contents have been painstakingly gathered, but they point to no unifying theme, raise no series of related questions. Several essays are carrier bags themselves in that they are surveys—gatherings or collections—of works that have heretofore escaped close examination. But the size and shape of these bags—and the ground over which the scavenging activity takes place—vary greatly. Gillian Adams only begins to gather what she hopes may eventually require...