Excerpt
Foreward: Although millions of people have read and studied this book, it remains in many respects an enigma. For example, scholars cannot agree on when or how the book was given its title. There is also substantial disagreement among experts about whether the entire book was actually written by Joshua Jennings, Jr., or whether sections of the book were instead compiled by friends or compatriots of Joshua Jennings, Jr., or witnesses of the events described herein.

In addition, there is the issue of language. Junior was originally written in the language of the Chiricahua Apache, a Native American tribe. Translating this dialect into 21st Century English has not been an easy task, as evidenced by the many versions of the book that exist in print today.

Despite these controversies, Junior has stood the test of time as a classic study of the human condition. As Professor Ronald Wood of Harvard University concluded in his well known monograph Junior: The Son Also Rises, “Junior may not give us all the answers, but it asks most of the right questions. Plus, the chapters are really short, so people with attention deficit disorders can make it through the book with little difficulty.”

Although it is impossible to synthesize all the scholarship devoted to Junior, I have added footnotes to the text to assist the reader in understanding and interpreting this timeless work of literature.

Dean Wilkerson, Jr., PhD.

University of Texas at Fayetteville, Arkansas