I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly recognize and thank Gerald Owen who has put a number of years into painstakingly editing and defining Books in Canada. Gerald is one of those rare public non-professional intellectuals, who has brought a whole panoply of interests and curiosity to his work here. The publication over the last few years has been very much a reflection of his fine mind. At no time in Books in Canada's long history has the publication produced as many or as varied reviews. I will certainly miss his involvement with the publication and the chance to see what book he has tucked in his jacket.

I would also like to thank the other editors. Thomas Pangle, our senior advisory editor, helped to set the publication's intellectual tenor and to shape and hone its political sensibility. Norman Doidge, our first editor, attracted a number of first-rate writers and editors and in this fashion put his unique stamp on Books in Canada.

Without diminishing the efforts of the last few years, I have been increasingly conscious of the publication's drift from our original vision, which was to produce one of the finest book review publications in the world, one that would place Canadian writing and authors firmly and securely in the company of the world's best literature and strongest minds. At the same time, our ambition was to create one of the most important moral and intellectual centres in Canada. Too many disparate voices in this country have not been heard, however. Too much of the country's raw talent has been ignored.

With the change in editor and editorial board, we now have the opportunity to address these lapses and to move toward fulfilling our vision.

We thank you for your loyal support of Books in Canada.

Adrian Stein