This volume is a collection of experimental and theoretical papers presented at the international "Topical Meeting on Optical Bistability", held at the University of Rochester, June 15-17, 1983, sponsored jointly by the Air Force Office of Scientific Re- search; the Army Research Office; and the Optical Society of America. The Conference, which had 150 attendees, overlapped (on June 15) with the Fifth Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum...