Corrections and Additions for Bernard Shaw, Collected Letters 1926–1950

The first numeral refers to page, the second to line. There are separate line counts for headnote and text. Recipient is indicated when more than one letter appears on a page. H indicates Headnote, T text.

NOTE: After the proofing had been completed, the printer somehow dropped the lower case “i” in many places in the text, as in a letter to William Maxwell on p. 129, line 5, and to E. W. Lummis on p. 217, line 17, and p. 218, line 1.

xxiv: No. 378        The unidentified article is: Joseph Mitchell, “Shaw, 80 and ‘Dying,’ Reneges at His Works Being Entombed in Textbooks,” New York World Telegram, 25 July 1936. See postcard of 11 November 1933 to Margaret Mackail, p. 355

xxvi: No. 430        First published as “G.B.S. and the Creeds,” South Wales Echo, 15 December 1950

38: H, 9        Jacob also wrote much sacred music, including choral works

108: 37        For “tantrum” read “tantrums”

130: H, 11        The Tunneys lunched with the Shaws on 14th December

158: H, 17        Revise to “famous Italian architect, engraver, and painter”

158: H, 23        Craig fathered only one of Duncan’s children

168: H, 8        For “streak” read “strain”

185: H, 2        (Astor) The Buxton departure was on 28th May

213: H, 5        (Kenworthy) Shaw’s rejected letter to the editor of the Daily News was first published as “New Wars, New Weapons,” in the Glasgow Herald, 21 November 1930

221: 27–28        For “in 1933” read “on 22 October 1932”

221: T, 33        For “thirteen” read “fourteen”

236 fn        This should have appeared at the foot of p. 235 instead of on p. 236.

308: H, 9        Frank O’Connor and Michael O’Donovan were the same person; O’Connor is a pseudonym

315: H, 5–8        It would have been clearer to state that Michelson and Morley disproved the existence of ether

315: H, 11–12        FitzGerald, as Jacques Barzun kindly reported, theorized about the contraction or lengthening of an object when traveling at speeds like that of light

321: H, 2        (Astor) The portrait is of Shaw posing with his hostess

325: H, 2        (Helburn) For “ex-president” read “late president”

369: 18        Revise to read “which its piously Victorian but resolutely . . .”

384: H, 4        Rousseau’s death year was 1778

417: H, 1–8        The attribution to Saroyan was an appalling blunder. Photocopies of two Shaw holograph notes surfaced in the archive of Gertrude Macy (general manager for Katharine Cornell), with an attached note in an unknown hand identifying Saroyan as recipient. The archive of the recently deceased writer had not yet been sorted and catalogued; but as there was evidence in Shaw’s archive and at Ayot St. Lawrence that the two had corresponded, and as the comments to “William” in the notes reflected characteristics of style and technique associated with Saroyan, the ascription was unguardedly accepted.

A few years after publication a facsimile of the Shaw note dated 23 September 1935 was unearthed in the Hedgerow Theatre archive in the Mugar Library, Boston University. On the reverse was a typewritten letter of 27 January 1940, to Jasper Deeter, director of the Hedgerow, from a playwright in Carmel, New York, named William Mahl, which read in part: “I am enclosing two plays of mine together with a commendation of my work by Mr George Bernard Shaw. Mr Shaw’s praise was for two other plays of mine which were given private production in England”

419: H, 1        Revise to read: “embark on a cruise through the Panama Canal to Hawaii,”

477: H, 3        (C. M. Shaw) Revise dates for Uncle Walter to “(1822–85)”

477: H, 4        For “1938” read “1939”

477: H, 9        Revise dates of Uncle William to “(1811–74)”

478: H, 1        Revise dates for Aunt Emily to “(1821–1906)”

478: H, 2        Revise dates for Uncle William George Carroll to “(1821–85)”

478: H, 3        Revise dates for daughter Emily to “(1850–1945)”

493: H, 3        (Pascal) Revise dates for Laurence Irving to “(1897–1988)”

537: H, 1        (Constable) Revise dates for Feliks Topolski to “(1907–89)”

557: 1        For “eighty” read “84”

557: 34        For “1913” read “1916”

564: H, 10        (Pascal) Revise dates for Rex Harrison to “(1908–90)”

567: H, 1        Revise dates for Ronald Gow to “(1897–1993)”

651: H, 1–2        Grace Eleanor Goodliffe, third daughter of Sir Frederick William Shaw (fifth baronet of Bushy Park), married Major Guy V. Goodliffe

651: H, 7        B. V. Shaw, of the Cork branch of Shaws, was a son of Sir Eyre Massey Shaw, celebrated (even in Gilbert and Sullivan) captain of the London Fire Brigade

666: T, 1        (Astor) For “respected” read “respited”

666: H, 4        (Deans) Revise dates for Ann Casson to “(1915–90)”. The letter is now in the Weiner collection, Colgate University Library

670: H, 3        (Gargan) For “Newry” read “Belfast”

714: H, 1        (Murray) Shaw had a copy of Les Plaideurs in his library, in a translation, The Litigants (1928), by W. R. Dunstan

715: 34ff        The marching song, still unidentified, probably dates to the beginning of the new century, with its references to the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 and the execution in the same year of his assassin Leon Czolgosz (“Cholgosh”) in the electric chair (first employed in 1890)

737: H, 1        Eagle’s dates were 1912–90

749: H, 8        (Laski) For “University of London” read “London School of Economics”

753: H, 1        Revise dates for Clare Winsten to “(1894–1989)” and for Stephen Winsten to “(1893–1991)”

772: H, 1        (O’Reilly) O’Reilly’s dates were 1893–1961

773: H, 1–2, 4        (Hernon) The Scroll of Freedom was presented at Ayot St. Lawrence on 28th August 1946, as reported in The Times on 29th August

777: 5        Shaw’s misspelling of “fainéants” was indited in longhand

795:H, 4        (Pollock) The Laughton rehearsal was on 24 February 1926

812: T, 9–12;        Extracts published previously in Martin Meisel, Shaw and

& 813, 1–13        the Nineteenth-Century Theatre, 1963

826: H, 1–3        The note is in error. On the original letter, acquired by

C-B, Shaw wrote the initials “GBS” in the left margin adjacent to the phrase “Let him redraw them artistically . . .”

848: code        (Astor) For “[H/101]” read “[H.t/101]”

850: H, 10        (Limbert) Revise dates for Denholm Elliott to “(1922–92)”

859: H, 3        (Musters) For “Bagnal” read “Bagnall”

873: H, 1        Dr. Max Schiller was the husband of the singer Yvette Guilbert

874: H, 5        For “Rémy” read “Remy”

• Index of Recipients

  Campbell:        add p. 149

• General Index

  O’Connor:        insert “(pseud.)”

  Pascal:        add p. 419

  Queensberry:        shift p. 576 from Marquess (son) to Lord (father)

  Roberts, D. K.:        delete p. 636

  Tyrrell, Ada:        delete p. 857