The Quintessential
G.B.S. : Social Views
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George Bernard Shaw
"On Going to Church"
The Savoy, January 1896.
Aubrey Beardsley designed the cover for this issue of The Savoy.
In his essay, "On Going to Church," Shaw declared his faith in
the true Holy Catholic Church, free from such things as "the refuse
heap of ‘isms’" and "the reading aloud of the naive
impertinences of St. Peter, who, on the subject of Woman, was neither
Catholic nor Christian, but a boorish Syrian fisherman."
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection
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George Bernard Shaw
This is the Preachment On Going to Church
East Aurora, New York: Roycroft Printing Shop, 1896.
When Elbert Hubbard wrote Shaw asking for permission for his
Roycroft Shop to reprint "On Going to Church," Shaw
replied: "As the magazine is not, as far as I know,
copyrighted in the United States, the articles in it are as much
at your disposal as the sermons of Jeremy Taylor or the plays of
Shakspere. If my wish has any weight with you, you will either
reprint the article word for word as it stands or else let it
alone."
Hubbard did neither, making many changes to the text to
accommodate the Roycroft’s typographic style, and advertising it
as the "Authorized Edition." Shaw was furious and called
it a "garbled piracy." Many of his criticisms of the
Roycroft’s pseudo-William Morris style are contained in his
essay "The Author’s View" that appeared in the
January, 1902, issue of the Caxton Magazine, and was
reprinted as "Bernard Shaw on Modern Typography" by
Horace Carr in 1915.
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection |
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George Bernard Shaw
From The Savoy, An Essay, On Going to Church
Boston: John W. Luce, 1905.
In this Boston edition of Shaw’s essay, the original Savoy
text was faithfully reproduced.
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection
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George Bernard Shaw
The G.B.S. Calendar. A Quotation from the Works of … George
Bernard Shaw For every day in the year, selected by Marion Nixon.
London: Frank Palmer, [1909].
The G.B.S. Calendar first appeared in 1907. The frontispiece drawing
for this, the second edition of the G.B.S. Calendar was made by
Joseph Simpson. Subsequent editions appeared in 1911 and 1921.
A sample: "In moments of progress the noble succeed, because
things are going their way : in moments of decadence the base succeed
for the same reason ; hence the world is never without the exhilaration
of contemporary success." (February 8)
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection
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H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw
Experiments On Animals. Views For & Against …
Reproduced by special permission from the Sunday Express of July 24th
and August 7th, 1927.
London: Published by The British Union for Abolition of Vivisection,
1927.
Shaw published his first attack on vivisection in 1887 and continued
to write against it for the rest of his life, finally publishing Shaw
on Vivisection in 1949. In that work, he argued that the atomic bomb
took vivisection to its logical conclusion, writing: "With the
ground thus cut from under our feet, and vivisectional amorality applied
to ourselves more ruthlessly than to the dogs, we can do nothing so far
but tremble."
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection
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George Bernard Shaw
Stereotyped Postcard, Bernard Shaw on Capital Punishment.
Ayot Saint Lawrence: [Printed by King Brothers and Potts, August,
1949]
Shaw’s conclusion to this statement on capital punishment is:
"Revenge and retaliation are very natural to us; but they are
absolutely ruled out by Christian Civilization."
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection
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George Bernard Shaw
Stereotyped Postcard, Vegetarian Diet
Ayot Saint Lawrence, [April, 1948]
An earlier version the text of this stereotyped postcard
appeared in the Spring, 1947, issue of The Vegetarian.
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection
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George Bernard Shaw
Mr. Bernard Shaw’s Appeal for a British Alphabet.
Ayot Saint Lawrence, September 13, 1944.
Shaw’s argument for alphabet reform were based on economic
grounds in time and money saved. In this postcard he announced
that as a last resort he was "bequeathing to the Public
Trustee the means of financing" a reformed British
alphabet. It was to be the first claim on his estate. In 1957,
following Shaw’s death in 1950, the High Court of Justice,
Chancery Division, issued a declaration that this provision of
his will was legally invalid. The money then went to the
residuary legatees, the British Museum, the National Gallery of
Ireland, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection |
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