This book is based upon lecture notes developed by Jack Kiefer for a course in statistical inference he taught at Cornell University. The notes were distributed to the class in lieu of a textbook, and the problems were used for homework assignments. Relying only on modest prerequisites of probability theory and cal culus, Kiefer's approach to a first course in statistics is to present the central ideas of the modem mathematical theory with a minimum of fuss and formality. He is able to do this by using a rich mixture of examples, pictures, and math ematical derivations to complement a clear...