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2 leaves
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John Herbert was a Canadian playwright and theatre director. Born and raised in Toronto, Herbert attended Dora Mavor Moore's New Play Society and the National Ballet School of Canada. In 1960 Herbert founded the Garret Theatre with his sister Nana Brundage, and in 1964 wrote his most famous work, Fortune and Men's Eyes, which was in part inspired by his arrest for dressing as a woman and subsequent time spent in a youth reformatory. It was first staged in 1967 in New York and remained his most popular play. Herbert died in 2001.
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File contains contains a review of John Herbert's book Some angry summer songs, published by Talonbooks in 1976. Appended to the review is a commentary by Ed Jackson, the review editor. Also includes Anton Wagner's rebuttal to this commentary and a further comment by Ed Jackson, in Body Politic (October 1977): 2. Includes author's note on the envelope: "Box E: John Herbert archives, Porter Library, University of Waterloo, Includes author's note on the envelope: "Box E: John Herbert archives, Porter Library, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. E9: Two copies of Body Politic, Toronto's first Gay newspaper, both dealing with the writing of John Herbert as playwright. E9a: A review of 'Some Angry Summer Songs', published by Talonbooks, a collection of four one-act plays by John Herbert, reviewed by Anton Wagner with an editorial comment contradicting Wagner's opinions, written by Ed Jackson. July/August, 1977. E9b: A letter from Anton Wagner on the subject of Ed Jackson's cuts to A.W.'s original review and E.J.'s dissenting comments, following the review. Ed Jackson again adds a note at end of E.W.'s letter. October, 1977. Note: Ed Jackson, review editor for Body Politic (Toronto's first gay newspaper) in the nineteen-seventies (and after) was one of many homosexual men of that era (and this one, the year 2000) that was made uncomfortable by openly feminine gay men like John Herbert and ready at all times to disapprove of everything created by effeminate homosexuals. This contingent of 'masculine-males-only' gay men are rather like misogynistic heterosexual men who insist on being superior to women in all things. These 'Gays' particularly dislike 'drag Queens' (transvestites, cross-dressers and female impersonators). The editorial staff on the second gay newspaper, Xtra, carries on this 'masculine gays are superior' attitude and the gay men involved are not too different from 'closet Queers' who want acceptance by straight society. Anton Wagner was and is a much more cosmopolitan and intelligently tolerant Gay man, a writer and film-maker who has become an impressive historian of wordly [sic] vision. J.H. (Sept. 2000).