|
|
flag, and I helped him fold it into the proper triangle. Each June through my elementary school years, we had assemblies on Flag Day. In fifth grade, I recited a Flag Day poem before my school. This was just before Richard Nixon began sporting an American flag on his lapel. Since that sartorial effusion, it seems as though every day in the U.S.A. is “flag day.” Flags wave night and day, rain or shine. Rain-soaked, they wilt, sag, and drag on the ground. This is an appropriate metaphor for the shoddy ardor they evince. What would George M. Cohan say?
These thoughts pertain to the making of this book. As is the case with any volume, it is the result of years of thought and effort in various places. Inspirations spring from numerous sources; one is conscious of some of them. I have presented papers at several international conferences of the Eugene O’Neill Society and chapter 1 is the better for the insights gained at those meetings. Chapter 2 was initiated when Annette Fern alerted me to the uncataloged John Mason Brown papers at the Harvard Theatre Collection. An earlier version appeared in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre 20, no. 3 (2008). David Savran’s advice was also important in shaping this chapter. My colleagues in the American Society for Theatre Research’s National Identity/National Culture Research Group have been of immeasurable assistance as I developed chapters 3, 4, and 5. My students in modern British drama seminars and exchanges with colleagues in the Noël Coward Society honed chapter 6.