Editors' Note: In Memoriam: Mark Shechner (1940-2015)

I first encountered Mark Shechner as a graduate student working on post-war Jewish-American fiction. At a time when scholarship in the field was generally rather conservative and unadventurous, Mark’s work stood out for its intellectual ambition, stylistic flair, and irreverent wit. His essays on Roth made a particular impression on me— whereas much of the criticism on Roth was still mired in polemical debates about whether or not he was “good for the Jews,” Mark managed to combine powerful advocacy of his fiction with an assured critique of its limitations. Many years later I met Mark at an American Literature Association conference in Boston, where he delivered a memorable tribute to his fellow native of Newark and Professor at Buffalo, Leslie Fiedler, another giant of JewishAmerican scholarship. Mark was as lively and witty in person as in his prose and I immediately warmed to him. The final stage of my relationship with Mark was professional: in my capacity as co-editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Modern Jewish Fiction (2015) I invited him to write a Preface to the volume. In the event, he not only wrote a wonderfully warm piece, he also corresponded with me at length and in detail about all aspects of the book. I would like to quote here from the acknowledgements, to give a sense of how far beyond the call of duty he went: “Mark has done more than anyone else to get it [the book] to stand on its own two feet and venture out into the world. When we asked him to write a preface for the volume, we had no idea (though perhaps we should have) how conscientiously and thoroughly he would read and re-read the manuscript. So engaged did he become with the book that he practically deserves a co-editing credit.” His contribution to the book was typical of Mark the man in its whole-hearted generosity and typical of Mark the scholar in its enthusiastic commitment. He will be sorely missed.