I, however, am ending my tenure as your editor a little sadly—although with great affection and respect. At the back of the book, you’ll see I’ve included a list of all 272 writers I’ve worked with in our series to date—it made my jaw drop as I reviewed the list from top to bottom. I’ve also provided a Readers’ Directory of the most influential editors, publishers, ’zines, and Web sites that’ve made erotic lit something to celebrate.

There’s one person in particular I’ll be missing as the series goes on—that’s my dad, who passed away as I was first composing this anniversary edition.

When I was asked to start Best American Erotica in 1993, the number-one most excited person in the world was my father, Bill Bright. He was an editor, a linguist, a poet—and the greatest reader I’ve ever known. That’s not daughterly affection; probably everyone he knew would say the same thing. His descriptions to me of the history of American erotica, and censorship battles, were something he’d taught me since I had my first questions about “banned books.”

When I was a little girl, he would sit me up at his desk while he was proofreading the galleys of his linguistics journal, Language. He’d give me a pencil and tell me to look for e’s and a’s that weren’t closed up, serifs that had broken off. It took me pages and pages to find one, but what a treasure to discover a real mistake!

He proofread every one of my BAE manuscripts, which offered plenty of new grass to mow. His expertise and enthusiasm in world languages and writing systems were invaluable to every character in this series who spoke a line of dialog. Between the two of us, we covered a couple centuries of popular culture, idioms, and historical references.

In August 2006, Bill was proofreading the latest of my galleys, up to page 125. The next day he went into the hospital for brain tumor surgery, and he did not recover. The day before, at his desk, was the last time he used his red pen.

The following winter, I was back to work at my office, and I said to my daughter, now eighteen, “It just won’t be BAE without him.”

Aretha looked at the pile of unread manuscripts that sat on my desk, and started writing little notes all over them. And so the apple falls to the ground. I’ll treasure her Post-its as I have every one of my dad’s red-ink remarks.

Thank you to everyone, for all your letters, counsel, sexual inspiration, and surprises over the past fifteen good ones. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next; and I’m sure you’ll find me in the thick of it, for many years to come.

Susie Bright

February 2008

Halves

Rowan Elizabeth