George A. Eiby and John H. Latter prepared this book on volcanoes in the tradition of Eiby’s earlier 168-page standard work Earthquakes that was first published in 1957 by Frederick Muller Ltd (London) and achieved its 5th and final edition in 1989. The original manuscript was prepared nearly three decades ago with the title Volcanoes, and was provisionally accepted for publication prior to the death of Eiby in 1992. It was planned to be published in late 1994 with the title The Worlds Volcanoes: A Panorama in Science and History, but publication was delayed and finally abandoned when the New Zealand publisher was unable to sign up an overseas co-publisher. By this stage, John Latter had added a postscript regarding the eruptions in 1991 of Pinatubo and Unzen volcanoes.