O.E. Middleton is a senior figure in New Zealand literature. Having worked at a variety of jobs, he served in the air force and army in 1944-45 and after the war lived in the US before travel in Europe. He began publishing his stories in 1949 and emerged as a significant practitioner of the 'vernacular critical realist tradition of Frank Sargeson'. But, as the editor has written, 'At his best... he is a subtle artist who can extend the sympathetic imagination of his readers, increase their awareness of basic human worth and show the evils of racial and economic injustice'. Lawrence Jones is a leading historian of New Zealand fiction. Born and educated in California, he moved to a lectureship in English at the University of Otago, where he initiated the first undergraduate paper in New Zealand literature. Books published by Professor Jones include Picking up the Traces: The Making of a New Zealand Literary Culture 1932-1945 (2003).