In prepar­ing the Amer­i­can edi­tion of Howard W. Camp­bell, Jr.‘s con­fes­sions, this Edi­tor’s Note dives into the com­plex­i­ties of Campbell’s iden­ti­ty as a writer and a per­son accused of severe crimes. Camp­bell, a one-time play­wright with mod­er­ate suc­cess, is illus­trat­ed as some­one who could manip­u­late truth to suit artis­tic demands. The edi­tor presents a dichoto­my: while Camp­bel­l’s fab­ri­ca­tions may mis­lead, they could also embody a form of truth that cap­ti­vates read­ers.

The edi­tor clar­i­fies their role not as a crit­ic, but as a facil­i­ta­tor, ensur­ing Camp­bel­l’s con­fes­sions are pre­sent­ed in a pol­ished man­ner. They men­tion min­i­mal alter­ations made to the text, pri­mar­i­ly con­cern­ing gram­mat­i­cal cor­rec­tions and the addi­tion of ital­i­ciza­tions for empha­sis. To pro­tect inno­cent indi­vid­u­als, sev­er­al names through­out have been changed, includ­ing those of Bernard B. O’Hare, Harold J. Spar­row, and Dr. Abra­ham Epstein. The edi­tor notes that addi­tion­al changes were made to cer­tain con­tent for eth­i­cal rea­sons, cit­ing legal con­cerns over a claim made in Camp­bel­l’s orig­i­nal man­u­script regard­ing “I‑Am-An-Amer­i­can Day,” which lacks sub­stan­tive proof.

Fur­ther­more, the edi­tor under­took the task of restor­ing Camp­bel­l’s poems quot­ed in Ger­man, as Camp­bel­l’s own ver­sions were often mud­dled due to his dis­sat­is­fac­tion with them. This restora­tion was exe­cut­ed by a com­pe­tent lin­guist, Mrs. Theodore Row­ley. The edi­tor, while aim­ing for fideli­ty to Campbell’s voice, admits to mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant cuts in two chap­ters: one due to legal advise­ment relat­ed to poten­tial­ly slan­der­ous con­tent and anoth­er involv­ing explic­it mate­r­i­al, which Camp­bell him­self request­ed be omit­ted.

Final­ly, a note about the book’s title ref­er­ences a speech by Mephistophe­les from Goethe’s *Faust*, empha­siz­ing the strug­gle between light and dark­ness and intro­duc­ing themes of dual­i­ty. Camp­bell orig­i­nal­ly want­ed to ded­i­cate the book to “Mata Hari,” but recon­sid­ered, shift­ing towards a broad­er com­men­tary on those who hide their mis­deeds behind a façade of right­eous­ness. The ulti­mate ded­i­ca­tion reflects Campbell’s self-aware­ness, reveal­ing his con­flict­ed nature as one who served “evil too open­ly and good too secret­ly.”