The first volume of a multi-volume handbook intended to provide professional mathematicians with information on topics outside their own areas. The level is graduate and up; treatment of topics is too dense for use as a textbook. Articles in seven areas are to be published as they are received - rather than in volumes covering a single area - to avoid prolonged publishing delays. In addition to primary information, reference to relevant articles, books, and lecture notes guide the reader. Indexing is detailed. Volume 1 contains papers on linear (in)dependence; fields, Galois theory, and algebraic number theory; generalizations of fields and related objects; category theory; commutative rings and algebras; associative rings and algebras; and cohomology. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.