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Auction: 312 - Numismatic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 1665

Shaw, George Bernard Nobel Prize-winning Irish playwright and political activist (1856-1950); known for witty, socially incisive plays such as Pygmalion, Saint Joan, and Man and Superman. Printed Letter Signed "G. Bernard Shaw," 1 page, oblong 12mo, "10 Adelphi Terrace, London," no date (but circa 1914-15). His stock response to letters about his 1914 essay "Common Sense About the War." The note explains that "I have received so many letters...that I have had to give up all hope of dealing with them separately...Many branches of the Independent Labor Party and other Liberal and Socialist organizations have passed resolutions which have...given me sincere personal gratification...Accept my thanks in this indiscriminate but very earnest form." He adds in an Autograph Postscript, "An editor is sometimes much more impressed by the letters he DOESN´T insert than by those he does." Matted under glass with a youthful period Photograph of Shaw and contained in a partly gilt wooden frame, 11" x 14.25" overall size. Some bumping of frame, but letter and photograph VG. Shaw´s essay had observed, among other things, that there was no difference in substance between German militarism and "Junkerism" and the English varieties, and that World War I was certain not to produce the desired results even when the UK won (which he does not doubt it will).

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$270