You Have Nothing to Learn from Me: A Literary Relationship Between George Bernard Shaw and Rodolfo Usigli by Ramón Layera and Katie Gibson (review)

Although the title You Have Nothing to Learn from Me suggests that this volume is a presentation of the literary relationship between George Bernard Shaw and Rodolfo Usigli, it is actually an annotated English translation of a later edition of Usigli’s detailed description of his two visits with Shaw¹ (Conversaciones y encuentros. México: Editorial Novaro, 1974). Both editions are accompanied by photographs of the notes Shaw sent to Usigli and a transcription of the letters Usigli sent to Shaw. However, whereas the edition in Spanish has over 50 still shots of the video Usigli filmed during the second visit in 1945, in this edition there is only one.

The foreword in this edition by Kelly Powell, Chair of the Department of English and specialist in Victorian Theatre, describes the context of the original conversation between the Mexican and Irish playwrights, which took place at the Ayot St. Lawrence on March 31 and April 12 (iv-vii). Usigli, the “playwright of the Mexican Revolution,” had a literary and personal obsession with the Irish author Shaw. During Usigli’s time as the secretary of the Mexican Embassy in Paris, from 1944-1946, he wrote to Shaw in order to meet with him. The elderly Shaw politely dismissed him on four occasions, hence Usigli decided to drop by unexpectedly. Shaw graciously received him in that moment, and then again a couple of weeks later.

The foreword, acknowledgements, notes, and introduction also describe the nature of the documents of the Usigli Archive, housed in the Havinghurst Special Collections Library, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The Archive is the “definitive collection” (Layera 114) relating to Usigli’s life and literary influences. In the introductory material, Powell also narrates the long journey of the over 200,000 items that form the Archive. An electronic link to the Special Collections webpage allows access to an index of the materials (http://spec.lib.muohio.edu); and a link to the Usigli webpage gives access to the notes of this book (http:usigli.lib.muohio.edu), as well as to a slideshow of pictures and drawings. The rest of the materials must be viewed in person.

The introduction also provides an overview of the life and works of both authors within the sociopolitical background of London in 1944. This edition’s translation was done by Katie Gibson, the Humanities Librarian at the Miami University Libraries, and Ramón Layera, specialist in Usigli and Emeritus professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Miami University. Moreover, according to Powell, Layera is the one who arranged for the Usigli papers to be placed at Miami. This edition also includes the eulogy Usigli wrote for Shaw in 1950 and a conclusion with a narration of Usigli’s participation in the production of the film Androcles and the Lion in 1949.

The letters Shaw (and/or his secretary) sent to Usigli include the dismissive note from November 22, 1944, which is the one that gives the title to this edition. It also contains a photograph of Shaw’s often quoted one-page response to Crown of Shadows, “Mexico can starve you, but it cannot deny your genius” (43). Usigli meticulously describes all the correspondence between the two playwrights, the feelings of hope and rejection he felt upon receiving the notes, and his obsession that culminated in the two visits in 1945. Additionally, this edition incorporates critical footnotes, which contextualize the literary exchange. The conversational tone is maintained and the idiomatic expressions are updated in the translation, seemingly in an attempt to accommodate the English-speaking readers of today.

The last anecdote presented in this edition seems to reinforce the idea that Shaw actually meant to say that Usigli was a genius, which, according to Usigli, wasn’t quite believed by his Mexican friends (and enemies...