‘ FIVE-AND-TWENTY years ago, at the epoch of this story, there dwelt, in one of the middle states, a man whom we shall call Fauntleroy; a man of wealth, and magnificent tastes, and prodigal expenditure.’ This is the opening of chapter XXII of The Blithedale Romance which gives us old Moodie's story. We are told how ‘ Fauntleroy ’ led a life of conspicuous expenditure, and finding himself growing poor, ‘ he recoiled from this calamity ’:

To avoid it – wretched man! – or, rather, to defer it, if but for a month, a day, or only to procure himself the life of a few breaths more, amid the false glitter which was now less his own than ever – he made himself guilty of a crime. It was just the sort of crime, growing out of its artificial state, which society (unless it should change its entire constitution for this man's unworthy sake) neither could nor ought to pardon. More safely might it pardon murder.

This bibliographical work has become so important and so standard a tool internationally for scholars working in American history and literature that one recognizes with some surprise the passage of fifteen years since its original publication and an even longer period since its compilation. It was the first large-scale project undertaken by the young British Association for American Studies which was only in the third year of its existence when the work began. With a munificent grant from the United States Information Service and under the general supervision of H. L. Beales, as many as five full-time researchers were engaged on it in its final stages and a great deal of part-time assistance was also available. Two useful by-products to appear before the Guide were ‘ A Survey of Library Resources in the United Kingdom for the Teaching of American History and Literature in the Universities ’ in the Journal of Documentation, 14 (1958), 103–18, and the ‘ Union List of American Newspapers in Great Britain and Ireland ’ edited by B. R. Crick and Ann Daltrop and issued in October 1958. The latter was brought up to date two years ago and reissued as ‘ American Newspaper Holdings in British and American Libraries ’; it was edited by D. K. Adams and produced for the British Association for American Studies by the David Bruce Centre for American Studies in the University of Keele.