SHAW The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies

[Some Principal Shaw Research Sources]

The Richard S. Weiner Collection at Colgate University in the small town of Hamilton, New York, is a relative newcomer in the world of Shaw collections—and one that many Shaw scholars will want to visit. The collection boasts more than one thousand letters by Shaw as well as a rich assortment of manuscripts, books, photographs, and art work.

The collection is the gift of attorney-turned-bookman Richard Weiner (Colgate ‘68), proprietor of Escargot Books, a book store in Brielle, New Jersey. Two converging impulses led to the creation of the Colgate collection—Weiner’s interest in Shaw and his desire to do something for his alma mater. Weiner describes Colgate as a “wonderful liberal arts college, where professors tried to make subjects come alive for the students.”* Not [End Page 148] interested in “the traditional route, giving money,” Weiner instead “wanted to put together a collection that I could watch grow, be exhibited, and written about during my lifetime.”

With a master’s degree in French from Harvard, a law degree from Penn, and a keen interest in Shaw, whose work he found both amusing and provocative, Weiner began collecting in 1980. Within a few years of his first purchase, a 3 by 5 signed snapshot of an elderly Shaw walking a country lane with hat, cane, and knickers, he had formed the nucleus of his remarkable collection. His initial gift to Colgate in the early 1980’s was followed by substantial additions well into the 1990’s.

Aggressive in his acquisitions, Weiner purchased items on his own as well as through dealers. Weiner recalls that “once it became known that there was a serious buyer in the market, the amount of good material that was offered to me through these dealers was extraordinary. I also believe that my strong commitment to buying quality Shaw items at auction may have discouraged others from bidding against me.” According to Weiner, his desire to acquire things that “the great man had put his hand to” guided his choice of material. First editions, for example, did not excite him; instead he wanted “inscribed books, signed letters and ephemera.” His collecting grew more focused over time: “I made lots of mistakes at first, buying items that I wouldn’t look twice at today. Gradually, I became more knowledgeable and focused. I was less interested in his political and economic views, or in very technical aspects of his theatrical productions, and was more drawn to letters in which this intellectual giant flashed his wit or demonstrated his well-known topsy turvyism.”

Given Weiner’s focus, it is not surprising to find that the correspondence is one of the great strengths of the collection. While some of it will be familiar to scholars through the Collected Letters and other publications, most of it will be new. Given that the collection contains correspondence from Shaw to well over 400 different recipients, any discussion here is necessarily incomplete. Chief among the letters, however, are those from Shaw to Gilbert Murray—nearly fifty written between 1898 and 1950. Subjects covered include Shaw’s plays, Murray’s translations, politics, publishing, WW II, Catholicism, and personal news. Another substantial segment, close to 150 letters and postcards to Charles Macdona between 1912 and 1940, documents Shaw’s relationship with the theatrical producer, providing a detailed look at Shaw’s views on casting, play selection, advertising, programs, film, and play touring.

Letters to a number of significant figures touch on many aspects of Shaw’s work in the theater. Letters to actress Mary Grey and husband J.B. Fagan focus largely on productions of Captain Brassbound’s Conversion and the possibility of a film version. His correspondence with Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson deals chiefly with Saint Joan. Letters to manager Hugh [End Page 149] Beaumont provide details of Shaw’s business agreements and are full of Shaw’s recommendations regarding casting, scenery, and directing. Letters to Nugent Monck, head of the Norwich Players, shed light on Shaw’s relationship with that company. In some cases, as with Macdona and Beaumont, the sizeable quantity of letters adds to their value. With other recipients, the quality of a single letter merits special attention. An 1893 letter to Lady Colin Campbell offers insight into Shaw’s view of Oscar Wilde, while a 1945 letter to Viennese actress Elisabeth Bergner contains a fascinating discussion of her celebrity status.

Shaw scholars whose interests lie outside the theater will also find much of value. Letters and postcards to various recipients touch on vegetarianism, politics, anti-vivisection, religion, Shakespeare, women’s suffrage, socialism, typography, vaccinations, poverty, Russia, Mussolini, and a host of subjects reflecting Shaw’s wide-ranging interests and associates. Researchers concerned with Shaw’s passion for a phonetic alphabet, for example, will relish letters between Shaw and C. K. Ogden, founder of the Orthological Institute and the Basic English Foundation. Those interested in film will find letters to scriptwriter Marjorie Deans, Gabriel Pascal’s assistant, and Cecil Lewis, director of film versions of Arms and the Man and How He Lied to Her Husband, illuminating. For discussions of health and diet, scholars can turn to Shaw’s letters to homeopath Maurice Ernest.

Researchers exploring publication and translation of Shaw’s works will be intrigued by more than one hundred letters and documents dealing with the publication of his work by Bernhard Tauchnitz. This correspondence includes approximately twenty letters from Shaw to his editor at Tauchnitz, Dr. Curt Otto, and more than fifty letters from Otto to Shaw. In addition, Shaw’s thirteen letters to his German translator, Siegfried Trebitsch, are supplemented by several letters to a Dutch journalist F. L. Leipnik on Trebitsch-related matters. Other letters related to publishing and translating include those to the publisher T. Fisher Unwin; G. H. Thring, Secretary of the Society of Authors; Hugo Vallentin, Shaw’s Swedish translator; and A. J. Hoppé of J.M. Dent Publishers.

The collection also holds over one hundred letters from Shaw to his secretary and half-cousin Georgina (Gillmore) Musters dealing with everything from mundane secretarial affairs to family matters. Shaw’s exchange of letters with Laurence Irving II, Henry Irving’s grandson, suggests Shaw’s late-in-life perspective on the elder Irving. Correspondence with F. H. Hayward, author of books and articles on education and an inspector of schools for the London County Council, provides insight into Shaw’s views on education and heredity.

One of the most interesting segments of the Weiner Collection correspondence is a group of letters written by Shaw’s wife, Charlotte. In particular, her lengthy letters to Cecily Shaw (Charlotte’s recent hostess in [End Page 150] Africa, wife of Shaw’s cousin Bernard Vidal Shaw, Resident Magistrate at Mombasa), and to C. P. (“Pip”) Blacker (psychiatrist and eugenics authority, a son of the Shaws’ frequent host at Torquay), are in turn chatty, philosophical, and practical. Among other non-Shaw correspondence is a large group of letters to W. Hector Thomson from theatrical figures such as Harley Granville Barker, Gertrude Elliott, and C. Aubrey Smith regarding Stage Society business.

Manuscripts comprise another significant component of the collection. The extensively revised autograph first draft and the heavily corrected typescript of Common Sense about the War are perhaps the most important manuscripts in the collection. The other major manuscript, and the item that Weiner describes as his most exciting purchase, is Bernard Shaw’s Rhyming Picture Guide to Ayot, which includes Shaw’s original photographs and holograph text. In addition to manuscripts of several articles and reviews, the Weiner Collection has the holograph manuscript of a Shaw report to the Executive Committee of the National Shakespeare Theatre. The collection also contains fourteen questionnaires answered by Shaw on such diverse topics as Indian home rule, the relation of cinema to the theatre, war and armaments, production of Shakespeare in modern dress, Bloody Sunday, and capitalism in the future.

Shaw’s 1904 Photographic Exposure Record and Diary, a particularly fascinating item, contains a record of photographs taken during his 1904 trip to Italy and includes notes on his daily activities. The collection also has several photographs by Shaw, including a self portrait, shots of Charlotte Shaw, and a lighthouse, which provide examples of his photographic skill. His letters to professional photographer and supplier M. H. Hoather add another dimension to the study of his interest in photography. In addition, the Weiner Collection has numerous photographs of Shaw, including one taken in 1876.

Shaw’s image is also featured in many caricatures. Several by Max Beerbohm, including “The Campbell Tartan and the Cockney Fling,” are highlights of the collection. In addition, there are drawings of Shaw by David Low, Colin Gil, Walter Tittle, and Aloysius Derso, and busts by Jose de Creeft, Sir Jacob Epstein, and Sigismund de Strobl. Several items in the collection document the work of artist Edmund J. Sullivan, who created a portrait of Shaw in 1929. Colgate has Sullivan’s notebook with various sketches of Shaw during a sitting, along with an original working drawing and proof copies of the portrait of Shaw at his desk.

Weiner also acquired a number of artifacts that had belonged to Shaw, including a pair of his gardening gloves and his manuscript cabinet. In addition to the personal effects, Weiner purchased the original “home movie” of Shaw and Danny Kaye at Ayot St. Lawrence, another item that, along with vocal recordings of Shaw, made Weiner “feel close to the man.” [End Page 151] A wide assortment of ephemera—a press release for the film Caesar and Cleopatra, theater playbills, programs for lectures, a broadside for “Simplified Spelling”—enhance the collection as well.

Rather than build a comprehensive collection of books by Shaw, Weiner concentrated on inscribed volumes and association copies. Inscriptions by Shaw to Sydney Cockerell, Oscar Wilde, Frederick Evans, Apsley Cherry Garrard, Beatrice Webb, John Mason Brown, J.M. Barrie, and Siegfried Trebitsch are among those found in the book collection. In addition, the Weiner collection contains over 200 volumes about Shaw supplemented by numerous magazine articles both by and about Shaw. A unique feature of the book collection is a special section of works on the history, art, and literature related to Saint Joan of Arc—an outgrowth of Weiner’s fascination with his favorite Shaw play.

The Weiner Collection is housed in the Department of Special Collections in the Case Library. Weiner’s “absolute confidence” in the Special Collections staff’s “ability to preserve, catalogue, display and manage” the collection is well founded. Researchers will find the collection well organized and easily accessible thanks to the fine management of Carl Peterson, Head of Special Collections. Peterson mounted a major exhibition of the collection in 1997; a second is planned for the year 2000. A valuable forty-four page illustrated catalogue written by Peterson in conjunction with the 1997 exhibition provides an impressive overview of the collection and highlights individual items of special interest.

When asked what he had enjoyed most about collecting Shaw, Weiner responded that he had relished the opportunity to build a collection of “enormous breadth.” And, indeed, scholars who make their way to Colgate will find that he has done just that.

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Some Principal Shaw Research Sources