From the United States Naval Academy's 1909 yearbook.

"Fourword: It's all in fun."  From the United States Naval Academy's 1926 yearbook.

"No, no, my melodies will never die, while nurses sing and babies cry."  From The Boyd Smith Mother Goose, 1920.

"This year of movement toward the not impossible has left imprints on these pages. Imprints of days not wholly sweet, not wholly bitter."  From Indiana State University's 1929 yearbook.

"Foreword.  Here's the thing we are tring to say—."  From Ball State University's 1922 yearbook.

From Piedmont College's 1926 yearbook.

The author here admits to being wholly unqualified to write about Mexico, having spent little time there and having failed to study its history, geography, language, art, archaeology, philosophy, or economics.  From Notes For A Book About Mexico by Howard Vincent O’Brien, 1937.

If you've ever read an especially helpful foreword, you can thank (at least in part) the Foreword Fairy.  From Montreat's 1947 yearbook.

Refreshing honesty -- this yearbook admits up front that it is in no way a part of reality.  From the University of the South's 1940 yearbook.

What a great pre-apology for causing offense: it's not you, it's your next-door neighbor the author was eviscerating.  From Needles and Pins by Mina Deane Halsey, 1909.

Here's an author's apology for letting a couple of fairies slip into the pages of her book.  From The Primrose Ring by Ruth Sawyer, 1915.   See How to Believe in Your Elf.