Acknowledgments

      Before mentioning my debt to those who helped with the earlier translations, I must thank Wayne Lammers for his advice on several pressing questions. Those who did provide me with thoughtful comments and suggestions on the Cornell East Asia Papers edition of the translations include Marian Ury, J. Thomas Rimer, Royall Tyler, and Brett deBary. John Timothy Wixted and Wesley Palmer also contributed significantly to improving the three tales not included in the Cornell edition. I thank both the editors of the Cornell and Arizona State series for their interest in seeing that these translations reach the wide audience which Dazai’s stories and sketches deserve.

      The Japan Foundation has been instrumental in this process of translation and revision by awarding me a grant to work on the initial drafts and by providing a subsidy to assist the present publication. The Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin too has facilitated the work by supporting me for four months of research leave. Donald Keene and Howard Hibbett have also lent their much appreciated support. I must also thank Donald Richie for his enthusiastic review of my earlier translations, and for endorsing, along with Professors Keene and Hibbett, the publication of the translations in this new format.

      The revising of these translations over the past year has been greatly aided by two editors from Tuttle. Ken Mori Wong encouraged me to rework my earlier translations of Dazai and made a number of pertinent criticisms and suggestions along the way, while Stephen Comee supervised the editorial process, especially in its latter stages.