On the occasion of the International Conference on Cosmic Rays held in Kyoto in August 1979 five aged members of the cosmic ray fraternity, H. Elliot, V. L. Ginzburg, B. Peters, Y. Sekido, and J. A. Simpson met together as a dinner party devoted to the enjoyment of Japanese cuisine and reminiscences of our younger days. This pleasant occasion called to of our own age as well as some eminent seniors not present at the mind the many friends conference whose recollections would have further enriched and enlivened our evening. By the time the dinner came to an end we had agreed that the compilation of a more extensive collection of personal reminiscences would be an interesting and worthwhile undertaking. Accordingly, the next day we held an editorial meeting to draw up a list of potential authors and two of us, the present editors, started work on the project. In putting the book together our intention has been to try to capture and record through these personal accounts something of the atmosphere, the excitement and the frustrations of research in cosmic rays as experienced at first hand by some of the practi­ tioners in the field. It has never been our intention that it should comprise a systematic history of the subject. Neither, unfortunately, can it be a fully representative collection since practical limits to the size of the volume alone would preclude that.