Bernard Shaw and Richard Strauss: A Friendship

In the years leading up to World War I, Bernard Shaw and Richard Strauss became, respectively, the leading English-language writer and the leading composer in the German classical music tradition. On Strauss's visits to London in these years, the two met and got to know each other despite linguistic difficulties (Shaw had some grasp of German, Strauss had little English); their last exchange of letters came in 1947. This article offers the first account of their friendship, in large part derived from Shaw's immense admiration for Strauss's music and what he represented in German and indeed European culture.