A synthesis of the enormous literature regarding exponential distribution in 34 essays written by statisticians demonstrating the tractability of the theory and applications. The discussions review conventional areas such as order statistics and their properties, prediction problems, and characterizations, in addition to more sophisticated discussions of exponential regression, bootstrapping method, and applications to survival analysis. For readers interested in initiating a dialogue with the authors, many of the contributors' e-mail addresses are also provided. Includes theorems and tabular illustrations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)