A project of this scope, magnitude, and duration—now in two editions—could not have been brought to fruition without the help of many people and institutions. Needless to say, neither edition of the Guide would exist but for the efforts of the legion of contributors, who conscientiously and patiently wrote and sometimes rewrote their entries at our request. Along the way we consulted far more people than we can name; the list of entry topics for both editions evolved and mutated substantially under the pressure of this counsel and advice. We also benefited greatly from the numerous anonymous outside evaluators enlisted by the publisher to appraise completed entries.

For the first edition, both the Academic Development Fund and the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism at the University of Western Ontario provided substantial support, as did the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Many student and research assistants helped us in various important ways: Cameron Bailey, David Brooks, Jim Horton, Susan Jay, Andrew Johnson, Kinny Kreiswirth, Karim Mamdani, Will McConnell, Dan Mellamphy, Michelle Reynolds, Anand Thakkar, and Anita Utas.

For the second edition, we thank Latham Hunter, Andrew Pendakis, Carolyn Veldstra, Peter Walmsley, and the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University. Work on the Guide at McMaster was aided by financial support from SSHRC and the McMaster's Arts Research Board, and at the University of Western Ontario from the Provost's Academic Support Fund.

At the Johns Hopkins University Press we thank Michael Lonegro, Julie McCarthy, Carol Eckhart, Clare Lochary, and Claire McCabe. Our copyeditor, Joanne Allen, did as superb a job on the second edition as on the first. Peter Strupp, of Princeton Editorial Associates, set up a production schedule designed to ensure timely publication and made certain that we stuck to it.

Finally, Michael Groden dedicates this book to Molly Peacock; Martin Kreiswirth to Kinny, Aaron, Nathan, and Hannah Kreiswirth; and Imre Szeman to his students at McMaster and to Joseph Szeman and Maria Whiteman.