Translations of the forewords and afterwords by original fairy tale authors and commentaries by their contemporaries, material that has not been widely published in English.

Ruth B. Bottigheimer teaches European fairy tales and British children's literature at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. She is the author of several books, including Fairy Tales: A New History, also published by SUNY Press, and Fairy Godfather: Straparola, Venice, and the Fairy Tale Tradition.