Hyperscapes in the Poetry of Frank O'Hara: Difference, Homosexuality, Topography results from my long and ongoing fascination with the work of Frank O'Hara. This began when I first came across O'Hara's work in 1980 in Donald's Allen's anthology, The New American Poetry. My admiration for the poetry has remained constant, though its primary focus has changed over the years. This book is a testimony to the many different aspects of Frank O'Hara's work which have delighted and stimulated me, ranging from the technical through to the cultural.

Initially I approached O'Hara as a poet, musician and general reader, but subsequently I wrote about him as an academic. This nexus of different perspectives informs my writing about him and I feel it has broadened my view of his work. The reading, application and extension of cultural theory grew out of my academic research and forms the backbone of this book. However, my interest in technical aspects of O'Hara's work, his creative processes, and his relationship to the other arts stem, in part, from my own preoccupations as a poet and practising musician. Some of the theoretical frameworks I have constructed also arose, in part, out of my enthusiasm for applying creative procedures to academic writing.

My work on O'Hara began with a Ph.D. thesis, completed in 1988, ‘The Sense of Neurotic Coherence: Structural Reversals in the Poetry of Frank O'Hara’. However, most of the material in the current book is new, and that which remains from the original thesis has been substantially rethought and rewritten. A small amount of the material in the book has been published in much earlier forms. Chapter 3 appeared originally as an article (Smith 1995) and two sections of Chapter 6 as a book chapter (Smith 1989). Both have been substantially reworked. Chapter 2 developed out of a conference paper which inspired the framework for the whole book (Smith 1997).

In preparation for writing the thesis I perused many of O'Hara's letters and manuscripts in libraries in the USA. I also talked to several of his colleagues and friends. They were often very generous with their time and in some cases gave me, or directed me towards, relevant material.