Book excerpt: Through a remarkable combination of intellect, self-confidence, engaging humility, and prodigious output of published work, William R. Dickinson influenced and challenged three generations of sedimentary geologists, igneous petrologists, tectonicists, sandstone petrologists, archaeologists, and other geoscientists. A key figure in the plate-tectonic revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, he explained how the distribution of sediments on Earth's surface could be traced to tectonic processes, and is widely recognized as a founder of modern sedimentary basin analysis. This volume consists of 31 chapters related to Dickinson's research interests; many of the authors are his former students, their students, and their students' students, demonstrating his continuing profound influence. The papers in this volume are an impressive tribute to the depth and breadth of Bill Dickinson's contributions to the geosciences.