If I cite from a book that has an introduction, but I do not cite the introduction, should I include the introduction's author in my works-cited-list entry?

If I cite from a book that has an introduction, but I do not cite the introduction, should I include the introduction’s author in my works-cited-list entry?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

Authors of introductions, prefaces, afterwords, and the like—collectively called front and back matter—are not usually essential to identifying a work and can be omitted from works-cited-list entries. If you do include the author of an introduction, place the author’s name in the “Other contributors” slot:

Gogol, Nikolai. Dead Souls: A Novel. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky, introduction by Pevear, Vintage Books, 1996.

You might include the author of an introduction or related material in your entry if the information would be especially useful for readers—for example, if the name of the author indicates that the edition being cited is reliable, notable, or up-to-date or if it suggests the work has a particular viewpoint or approach.