Beginning hi his preface to the ldquo;Uniform Editionrdquo; of his works, Mark Twain wrote: ldquo;So far as I remember, I have never seen an Authorlsquo;s Preface which had any purpose but onemdash;to furnish reasons for the publication of the book. Prefaces wear many disguises, call themselves by various names, and pretend to come on various businesses, but I think that upon examination we are quite sure to find that their errand is always the same: they are there to apologize for the book; in other words, furnish reasons for its publication. This often insures brevity.
