A Profile of George Bernard Shaw
Playwright, Polemicist, Critic and Essayist
In 1946 Hutchinson & Co published G.B.S 90, a commemorative volume to celebrate the Irish Playwright’s 90th birthday, made up of contributions by those who knew, or were influenced by, the irascible, hugely influential, and often very funny scribe.
The Foreword to the book is written by the then eminent Greek Scholar, and friend of Shaw’s, Gilbert Murray, who kicks off his piece in a wonderfully non-academic, and slightly louche fashion:
“I am in no fit state, writing in bed on a typewriter as old as myself [he was 80] and equally in need of repair, to send a worthy contribution to the Festschrift of G.B.S. But I could not bear to be left out while others are honouring one whom I admire so greatly.”
Murray goes on to write that:
“Though I have lived much among intellectual workers [a wonderful hint of his politics there], I doubt if I have known anyone who lived so vividly the life of the mind and cared so little for that of the mere body [as Shaw]. The pleasure of eating and drinking count surprisingly little to him. No coarseness or sensuality ever shows its head through his overflowing wit. Even pain seems not to disturb him much. I once went to see him in Hindhead [Shaw’s home at the time] when he had just had…
