It’s been a busy few months. Early this year Scott Masterson, my friend and colleague of a quarter-century, took the helm as president of American Heritage. Scott is a person of formidable energies, and he immediately directed them toward strengthening many areas of the company. But one mandate of his has affected our working lives more than all the others combined.

American Heritage has had a Web site for years. In an era when the humblest of enterprises has its site, we really had no choice. But I believe it’s fair to say that ours always had a whiff of the perfunctory about it.

No more.

American Heritage has established “History’s Homepage,” at www.americanheritage.com , and I don’t think it’s overweening to call it that. I am, thank God, about five years too old to make a sensible contribution to any Internet innovation, let alone one as ambitious as this. But (again, thank God) our managing editor, Frederick Allen, is not. He is so fluent with a computer that he can rescue me from the consequences of my most extravagant ineptitudes, and when Scott said “Web site,” I added new breadth to the word delegate . Our new Web site has been Fred’s work, all of it, with the willing and enthusiastic help of the rest of our small staff. I think the result is dazzling—and wonderfully valuable—but Fred, who built it, should be the one to introduce it, and I turn this forum over to him with admiration and gratitude.

—Richard F. Snow