This book should fill a gap which has existed in the literature on supercon ductivity. There have been a number of excellent textbooks available on the phenomenon of superconductivity, which describe in detail the variety of ef fects connected with it and the mathematical techniques to deal with them properly. However, until now there has not been a textbook available in English which concentrates on the mate~ial aspects of superconductivity. This is a major shortcoming since most physicists working in the field of superconduc tivity are mainly concerned with specific materials and subsequently often need to know more about the interplay of superconductivity and material prop erties. On the other hand, people working in the field know that a competent and well-written book by S. V. Vonsovsky, V. A. Izyumov, and E. Z. Kurmaev has been available in Russian. It presents a thorough discussion of superconducting transition-metal alloys and compounds. This volume is a translation of an updated version of the Russian edition. The translation was done by A. P. Zavarnitsyn of the authors' institution and by Dr. E. H. Brandt of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Metallforschung in Stuttgart. The master manuscript was ably typed by Mrs. C. Pendl. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of them. I sincerely hope that the book will turn out to be useful to physicists working in the field of superconductivity as well as to nonspecialists and interested graduate students.
