Thirteen original essays written specifically for the second Eaton Conference on Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, held February 23-24, 1980, at the University of California, Riverside.

These essays demonstrate the variety of fantasy forms and their pervasiveness throughout the ages and will stimulate further study of this complex and elusive mode. The essays--by Harold Bloom, writer and DeVane Professor of the Humanities at Yale University; Larry McCaffery, Assistant Professor of En­glish at San Diego State University; Marta E. Sánchez, Instructor of English at the University of California, San Diego; Arlen J. Hansen, Professor of English at the University of the Pacific, Stockton; David Clayton, Instructor of Comparative Literatureat the University of California, San Diego; Robert Sale, writer and Professor of English at the University of Washington; G. Richard Thompson, Professor of English at Purdue Univer­sity, West Lafayette; Robert A. Collins, Coordinator of the an­nual Swann Conference on the Fantastic and Instructor at Flor­ida Atlantic University, Boca Raton; John Gerlach, Associate Professor of English at Cleveland State University; David Ket­terer, writer and Professor of English at Concordia University, Montreal; George R. Guffey, Professor of English at the Univer­sity of California, Los Angeles; Jack P. Rawlins, Associate Pro­fessor of English at California State University, Chico; and Gary Kern, writer and translator of early Soviet literature--examine fantasy on many levels of interest: as an element of human thought, as a constant factor in the social and intellectual environment, and as a generator of form in art and literature.