ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and defines the Festschrift as both a literary form and a publishing albatross. A Festschrift means a publication which celebrates an event or honors a person. Everything from the place of contributors in the volume must be carefully measured. Library holdings indicate that the term Festschrift was reserved at the earlier part of the century for publications honoring special achievers and achievements in the physical sciences and honored humanists in the fields of philology and linguistics. People in scholarly pursuits who give of their time and energy to celebrate others have performed an act of intellectual altruism which itself becomes part of the general culture. In a universe in which heroes and heroines are in short supply, the Festschrift with its outlines of the virtues of the person honored no less than his or her achievements, continue to serve as a reward for the best and an inspiration for the brightest.
