This essay was originally conceived as a term paper for a Modern British Drama course offered by Jean Gregorek at Antioch College, in 1997. When the paper was deemed inappropriate for the course, I saved my notes and planned to develop the essay as a zine. Over the next couple of years I worked at it in clumsy surges, and in 2001, left Portland, Oregon with over $75 in library fees from overdue books related to the project. In Philadelphia, I picked up the pieces again, checking out the same groundbreaking Christopher Innes text Modern British Drama: The Twentieth Century and the same Look Back in Anger sourcebooks from the public library. When I quit Philadelphia, I owed their library a little under $50 for overdue books. In Geneva Switzerland, San Francisco, and Portland (again) I occasionally looked over my notes and intended to return to the project. Today, in 2008, I have the same stack of books checked out from the New York Public Library with nine days left before their due date. It seems right to have finished this zine just two months after the 50-year anniversary of A Taste of Honey's debut, and 25 years following the release of the first single by The Smiths.
August 21, 2008
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