Preface

"Proem" redirects here. For the musician, see Proem (musician). For other uses, see Preface (disambiguation).

Preface to the poem Milton by William Blake

A preface (/ˈprɛfəs/) or proem (/ˈproʊɛm/) is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes with acknowledgments of those who assisted in the literary work.

A preface generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or how the idea for the book was developed; this is often followed by thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the time of writing.

A preface is usually signed (and the date and place of writing often follow the typeset signature); a foreword by another person is always signed. Information essential to the main text is generally placed in a set of explanatory notes, or perhaps in an "Introduction" that may be paginated with Arabic numerals, rather than in the preface. The term preface can also mean any preliminary or introductory statement. It is sometimes abbreviated pref.

Preface comes from the Latin, meaning either "spoken before" (prae and fatia)^[1][2] or "made before" (prae + factum). While the former source of the word could have preface meaning the same as prologue, the latter strongly implies an introduction written before the body of the book. With this meaning of stated intention, British publishing up to at least the middle of the twentieth century distinguished between preface and introduction.

See also

• Epigraph


• Exordium (rhetoric)


• Introduction


• Postface


• Prologue

References

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2. 
   ^ "praefātĭo". Retrieved September 18, 2013.
   

Further reading

• A history of the preface in several languages is contained in: Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. The Social Dimensions of Fiction: On the Rhetoric and Function of Prefacing Novels in the Nineteenth-Century Canadas. Braunschweig-Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher (Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn), 1993. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture.


• 
  The difference between a preface, foreword, and introduction, patmcnees.com

External links

• 
  Media related to Prefaces at Wikimedia Commons


• 
  The dictionary definition of proem at Wiktionary

v t e Book design
General page layout and typography choices	Fonts
Front and back covers	Buckram Leather Anthropodermic bibliopegy Treasure binding
Endpapers	Marbled
Front matter	Half-title bastard title Frontispiece Title page Edition notice Dedication Epigraph Table of contents List of figures List of tables Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Prologue Printer's mark
Body matter, which may include:	Body text Chapters Parts Sections Tipped-in pages
Back matter	Afterword Conclusion Epilogue Outro Postscript Appendix/Addendum Glossary Bibliography Index Errata Colophon Postface
Other elements	Bookplate ex-librīs Catchword Die-cutting Fore-edge painting Pop-ups Thumb index

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