This edition of Malcolm's Katie is the fourth in a series of editions of early Canadian long poems that has been made possible by a generous grant from the Academic Development Fund of the University of Western Ontario. For the generosity of the University and the confidence of many colleagues, most notably J.F. Woodruff and T.J. Collins, respectively the Chairman of the Department of English and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the time of the Academic Development Fund Grant, and the Adjudicating Committee and external referees of the A.D.F., all of us involved in the editing of Malcolm's Katie are profoundly grateful.

     To librarians and archivists at Queen's University, especially Anne MacDermaid in the Archives and the staff in the Rare Books Room of the Douglas Library, thanks are due for making available materials included in this edition.

     I owe a very special debt to R.J. Shroyer, my long-suffering partner in the project to edit early Canadian long poems; his computing skills, his shrewd insights and his unstintingly generous gifts of enthusiasm, advice and time have made the production of this series practically possible, intellectually engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. I also owe a special debt to Michael Williams for his computing work on this edition of Malcolm's Katie, and to Pamela Jeffrey and Carolyn Quick for their patience in processing and proofreading the present edition, and for sharing with me their valuable thoughts and feelings about the relation between Crawford's poem and matters female, feminine and feminist. In this last regard, I am also grateful to Robin Edwards Davies whose help and advice have contributed a very great deal to my understanding of Malcolm's Katie. For their careful and constructive criticism of this edition in its final stages, I owe many thanks to Catherine Ross and S.R. MacGillivray, scholars whose work was seminal in generating my own interest in Crawford and the editorial problems surrounding her work. Thanks are also due to several other people at the University of Western Ontario and elsewhere, especially Christopher Ricks, E.J. Devereux, Elizabeth Harvey, J.M. Zezulka, Eileen Gillese, D.S. Hair, Glen Wickens, David Kinahan, and, again, Michael Williams, who have made comments and suggestions that have been very useful. My final and deepest debt, as always, is to my wife and closest friend, Susan—"home is always round her . . . shedding its quiet light, for those who else were homeless."