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6X`cdlaZY\bZcih From the first place of intimacy, I wish to thank—for inspiration, for sustenance —my wife,Denise; our first son,Louis,who slept on my lap through the mornings of his first year as I began typing the manuscript; and our second son, Ambrose, who did likewise during its completion. I owe much to the work and presence of five members of the Dionysian Order: Fielding Dawson, Jack Micheline, Jeff Nuttall, John Stevens, and Val Wilmer, instigators of the drama across many forms, and all—bar Val, who continues to thrive—taken too soon.My gratitude also extends to Karl Kageff,Barb Martin,Carol Burns, Julie Bush, and their colleagues at Southern Illinois University Press: ever patient and supportive. I must acknowledge, too, the backing of my parents, Beryl and Paul,who encouraged me to seek an education denied to members of their generation’s social standing. It’s a lasting shame that recent British governments, possessed by Blake’s demon pathology Urizen, and knowing only petty utility, have reverted to a situation where only the wealthy can encounter art’s promise of fabulous life, an awakening that’s properly the right of all. Here’s to a more tender, spirited, and enlightened future . . . ix ...

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