Norma Jenckes, Ph.D. (Illinois), is Associate Professor of English, University of Cincinnati. Among her books are: Arms and the Man: A Facsimile of the holograph Manuscript (1981) and New Readings in American Drama (2002). She is the founding and continuing editor of American Drama and has published essays on Shaw, Albee, Miller, Williams, Wilson, Lawson, and Odets.

'Shaw's refusal to moralise about the sex trade, only about thesystem that supports it, provides the play with its dramatic tensionand surprising modernity.' The Guardian Mrs Warren's Profession found its way onto the stage amidst much censorship, and police and public outcry. The play displayedShaw's radical attitudes towards a huge social problem, prostitutionand human trafficking and an immense psychological problem, theconflict between mothers and daughters. Mrs Warren's Profession has proven to be extremely durable-as durable as the problems it presents. Students will find a wealth of information to guide theirstudies: an extended introduction exploring theatrical and historicalcontext, critical reactions, background on the author and stagehistory. It also includes Shaw's original Preface, and the play itselfcontains numerous notes and explanations throughout to aid thestudent's understanding.