THE IDEA FOR THIS VOLUME originated with Undine Griebel, a visiting faculty member in our department from 2001 through 2003. She was intrigued by the list of outstanding authors who had taken up temporary residence in a small Ohio college town in order to begin new and often unfamiliar academic and personal routines. One by one, she contacted our former writer-colleagues, inquiring about their activities since Oberlin and how they remembered their stay among us. Her inquiries were facilitated by our file of brochures on each writer. Prepared toward the end of a writer's Oberlin tenure, each brochure announced the concluding event, which was the author's public reading from his or her work. The individual brochures provided information about the author's life and work, activities while in Oberlin, and a list of his or her publications.

Understandably, not all of our authors were ready or able to recall this chapter of their lives, which for some may have seemed quite distant. But most obliged, and promptly sent us texts that are in one way or another related to Oberlin. The response from so many of our authors and the many fascinating contributions, both original and published, were such that we began to think of publishing them in book form.

Our plan has now been realized through the collective efforts of all the members of the German Department. Undine Griebel, Dorothea Kaufmann, and Heidi Thomann Tewarson contributed energy, imagination, and devotion without which this volume would not have reached fruition. Steven R. Huff and Elizabeth C. Hamilton added their ideas and enthusiasm and also wrote sections on individual authors. Michele Ricci, our Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, similarly helped to bring the project along. We are grateful to our emeritus colleague Sidney Rosenfeld for frequent advice, and also to our — by now former — students, Gabriel Cooper, Robin Ellis, and Alison Dennis, for their good work in researching several of the authors. Their participation was made possible by two Oberlin College faculty-student research grants. Above all, we owe warm thanks to all our former writers who have so generously sent us their contributions and patiently answered our queries. We also would like to express our special appreciation to Susanne Hochwälder, Christine Becker, and Eva Hofmann for their help in locating and sending us materials and information about their deceased husbands.