Dear Mr. Shaw : Correspondence of George Bernard Shaw

A collection of letters from around the globe written to George Bernard Shaw together with his unpredictable and witty replies - to such requests as marriage proposals and pleas for advice on troubles both serious and ridiculous.

This illustrated volume features the letters from around the globe (plus one from beyond the grave) written to George Bernard Shaw, together with his witty and unpredictable replies. Shaw calculated that he could have written about 20 more plays in the time expended on the quarter of a million letters and cards he sent in reply to those who wrote to him. At one stage he was receiving up to three proposals of marriage a week, and included here are mutual declarations of love exchanged with Virginia Woolf and a final letter to one long-standing correspondent: "Dear Elsie, Seek younger friends, I am extinct. G.B.Shaw". He declared "I have become the father confessor of the whole world", and this compilation indicates the wide range of topics on which he was requested to advise. To one aspirant author, W.H.Davies, he ensured the success of "Autobiography of a Super-Tramp", but to another he responded "Who would want to read your rubbish after my preface?"A great number demanded attention to troubles great and small, serious and ridiculous, from the plea for a new doggie (agreed), to the offer of lunch at Chequers and a knighthood (declined).