Regarding the second assumption: the Prefaces to the recent print editions of the Statistical Abstract said that both government and private sources contributed to its mix of data.

FORBES: Statistical Tools and Errands for Fools

"Mark Rothko: The Decisive Decade, 1940-1950" includes 27 of his paintings, many of them on paper, that are usually exhibited as mere prefaces to his signature glowing and complexly layered canvases.

WSJ: Becoming Mark Rothko | The Decisive Decade | Columbus Museum of Art

It is, apart from the plays themselves and their prefaces, almost the only tangible relic of a man much written about by friends and enemies during and immediately after his lifetime, who nevertheless remains in many ways mysterious, despite endlessly proliferating scholarly and critical research.

ECONOMIST: Mysterious Moli��re