The present volume makes available in one convenient place all the research papers published by Raymond D. Mindlin in the course of a half-century of professional activity. Included, in addition, is the full text of three of his extended review articles, because these remain timely as well as historically important. Also to be found here is a brief sketch, written by one of us, his student and co-author, colleague and friend. It contains Mindlin's basic biographical data, although it dwells primarily on an analysis of his work and a chronicling of his accomplishments. The papers reprinted herein are reproduced photographically as they ap­ peared originally. We have excluded several short review articles; moreover, to our regret, because of constraints of space we have been unable to print three extended reviews. These are: "The photoelastic method of stress analy­ sis," published in volume 10 of the Journal of Applied Physics; a short mono­ graph, "Dynamics of package cushioning," which may be found in volume 24 of the Bell System Technical Journal; and the chapter entitled "Analogies," written for the Handbook of Experimental Stress Analysis.