LETTERS OF BERNARD SHAW TO THE TIMES, 1898-1950; ED. BY RONALD FORD

the long version

"What is astonishing about Bernard shaw is not that he wrote so many letters, but that he found the time and energy to produce any at all. Yet Shaw the playwright and director, reviewer and critic, essayist and lecturer, vestryman and borough councillor, managed to write many thousands of letters. Moreover, they are often as scintillating and provoking as his plays, even though most were written for a readership of one. The Times, however, presents a special case: a venue in one of the most respected and widely read newspapers of Shaw's day." "The five decades of letters collected in this volume evidence not only Shaw's tireless productivity - he often seems to incarnate his own idea of the 'Superman' - but the interest he took in current events of all kinds, from medicine and theatre to politics and economics. Nothing, it appears, was unimportant for Shaw, and his views on topical matteers as they appeared in The Times form a fascinating portrait of the socio-political and literary controversies and debacles of the first half of the twentieth century."--book jacket.