The articles in this volume were contributed by the friends of Lucien Le Cam on the occasion of his 70th birthday in November 1994. We wish him a belated happy birthday. In addition to all the usual excuses for our tardiness in the preparation of the volume, we must point to the miracles of modern computing . .Az3 the old proverb almost put it: there's many a slip 'twixt \cup and \baselineskip. We beg forgiveness of any of our infinitely patient contributors who find that the final product does not quite match with the galley proofs. Our task was also made harder by the sad death of our friend and fellow editor, Erik Torgersen. We greatly appreciate the editorial help of David Donoho with one of the more troublesome contributions. In addition to the 29 contributed articles, we have included a short vita, a list of publications, and a list of Lucien's Ph.D. students. We are also pleased that Lucien allowed us to include a private letter, written to Grace Yang, in response to a query about the extent of his formal mathematical training. The letter gives some insights into what made Lucien one of the leading mathematical statisticians of the century.
