Tenso

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Thisissueof7Î7VS0, 13.2, comestoreaders somewhat laterthan usual.Thereareanumberofexplanationsforthis,themostimportantof whichisthattheproductionofficesofTENSOmo\edlatelast Springfrom Athens, Georgia, where Salue Spence worked as Managing Editor, to Honolulu, Hawaii,wherethenewManagingEditor,KathrynKlingebiel, is based. Kathrynhasworkedhardtomasterthesoftwareusedtoproduce thejournalandistobecommendedforherspeedandefficiencyingetting thingstogether. AsEditor-in-Chief, I apologizetothereadersofTENSO forthisdelayandaskfortheirforgiveness. Weareusingthiscircumstance,moreover,toeffectaconversion. Uptonow, TENSO'svolumenumberdidnotcorrespondtothecalendar year, but rather to the academic year, so that volume 1 2, for example, appearedintheFallof1997andtheSpringof1998. Beginningwithvolume 14,thevolumeyearandpublicationyearwillcorrespond—volume 14will appear in Spring and Fall of 1999. We hope that this new system will simplify the lives ofreadersofthejournal andofscholars who will cite articlespublishedin TENSO. I must add a word ofthanks to Sallie Spence, who served as Managing Editor of TENSO for ten years. In that time, the journal's publication was ably managed; it was Sallie who first suggested the redesignofthejournalandwhosoughtoutdesignersforthenewcover. If the early issues of TENSO reflect the character ofthe journal's first ManagingEditor,Merritt Blakeslee,thencertainlythemorerecentissues areareflectionofSallie. TENSO'sdebttoherislargeandthesefewwords do not sufficeto repayher forherhoursofwork. ThisissueofTENSOcontinuesthetraditionofspecialissueswith aspecialeditor,devotedto specialthemes. Inthiscase, WilliamD. Paden has collected articles that explore the influence and impact on Occitan literatureofotherlanguagesandliteratures,demonstratingthatcommunicationintheMiddleAgeswasatwo -waypropositioninsofarasOccitania wasconcerned. Asthe twentiethcenturydrawsto aclose, I remind the readers ofTENSO that communication remains two-way. Readers of TENSOareencouragedtorespondtoarticlespublishedinthejournaland arealso invitedtosubmittheirownworkforpublicationin TENSO. WendyPfeffer Editor-in-chief ...