Jeffrey D. Todd has taught since 1997 at Texas Christian University, where he is Associate Professor of German and French. Todd has published on the poets Stefan George and Paul Celan, and the literary critics Theodor Adorno and Ernst Robert Curtius. In this issue, his review of Volker Braun’s poetry shows another facet of Todd’s interests: the attempt to learn from the political experiment that was the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). He also is a passionate musician performing regularly in regional jazz ensembles, who publishes reviews of jazz recordings and interviews with jazz musicians. This musical interest extends to opera as well, as Todd has also taught a course on Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle.