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The History Behind FREE LOVEGreenwich Village, 1920. Since before the Great War, the Village had been the beacon that drew young artists and writers to New York. After the Armistice, it became the place to be, for women as well as men. Flats, food and wine were cheap, ideas and talk were rich, love was free. Genders blended.What a wonderful time to be alive. I chose Edna St. Vincent Millay as my spiritual inspiration and made my protagonist, Olivia Brown, a poet. I steeped myself in Millay's Greenwich Village, when the Provincetown Players was born and where Eugene O'Neill's work was first performed by enthusiastic amateurs, Millay included. Millay's letters and poetry were invaluable, as were Allen Churchill's, THE IMPROPER BOHEMIANS, and Ann Douglas' A TERRIBLE HONESTY. The setting of FREE LOVE is the Village in 1920, with its bars and saloons and coffee houses, with the Provincetown Playhouse. The places I've used existed.
I found the Hudson Dusters (I've used their real names) in
Arthur and Barbara Gelb's biography of O'Neill, and I made
them
mine. They did take O'Neill under their wing, but the rest
is
fiction.
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Copyright © 1998 Annette Meyers All rights reserved |
