Preface

For other uses, seePreface (disambiguation).

Preface to the poemMiltonby William Blake

Apreface(/ˈprɛfəs/) orproem(/ˈproʊɛm/) is an introduction to abookor otherliterarywork written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is aforewordand precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes with acknowledgments of those who assisted in the literary work.

It often covers the story of how the book came into being, or how the idea for the book was developed; this may be followed by thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the time of writing.

A preface is often signed (and the date and place of writing often follow the typeset signature); a foreword by another person is always signed. Information essential to the main text is generally placed in a set of explanatory notes, or perhaps in an "Introduction" that may be paginated withArabic numerals,rather than in the preface. The termprefacecan also mean any preliminary or introductory statement. It is sometimes abbreviatedpref.

Preface comes fromLatin,meaning either "spoken before" (praeandfatia)or "made before" (prae+factum). While the former source of the word could have preface meaning the same asprologue,the latter strongly implies an introduction written before the body of the book. With this meaning of stated intention, British publishing up to at least the middle of the twentieth century distinguished between preface and introduction.

See also

• Abstract(legal)
• Abstract(summary)
• Epigraph
• Exordium
• Introduction
• Postface
• Preamble
• Prologue

Further reading

• A history of the preface in several languages is contained in: Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven.The Social Dimensions of Fiction: On the Rhetoric and Function of Prefacing Novels in the Nineteenth-Century Canadas.Braunschweig-Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher (Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn), 1993. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture.
• The difference between a preface, foreword, and introduction,patmcnees.com
• Seán M. Williams:Pretexts for Writing: German Romantic Prefaces, Literature, and Philosophy.Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2019. New Studies in the Age of Goethe, ISBN 9781684480524

External links

• Media related toPrefacesat Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition ofproemat Wiktionary