Newspaper Article

A Shavian tapestry Michael Holroyd's monumental life of GBS reaches its conclusion

Reviewed by John McAleer, professor of English at Boston College and author of biographies of Theodore Dreiser, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Jane Austen

1991

Overview

Having already published two volumes of his epic biography of George Bernard Shaw, Michael Holroyd found his subject already 63 years old when he began the final volume, \"Bernard Shaw: The Lure of Fantasy.\" That fact can have occasioned him no dismay. Shaw was to remain a dynamic presence on the world scene for another 32 years. In that span he brought out a succession of masterpieces-\"Heartbreak House\" (\"Behold my Lear\"), \"Back to Methuselah\" (\"my Ring\"), the \"Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism\" (\"my magnum opus\"), and \"St. Joan,\" which brought him the Nobel Prize. Another dozen plays followed, even as he re-edited his collected works for their Standard Edition and rescripted seven plays for the movies. While this went on he girdled the globe, assessed the changing political scene as he went and recast friendships that had fallen vacant. At 82, Shaw assured H.G. Wells, \"I seem to have dried up at last; I am absolutely barren.\" But a week after his 86th birthday he began writing plays again. At 93, he lamented, \"the days pass like a flight of arrows.\" Yet new projects still engrossed him. His final play was written in 1950, in a single week, when he was 95. \"My God, what women,\" said an exultant Robert Louis Stevenson on first seeing a Shaw play. Athletic grip, bounding pulse, bossiness, arrogance were hallmarks of the Shavian woman. She exemplified the Life Force that GBS not only celebrated but also personally manifested. Wherever Shaw went he grabbed the headlines. That was as intended. \"Whenever you meet someone more important than you are,\" he told an aspiring youth, \"disagree with him and, if possible, insult him.\" Direct, purposeful, he gave sentiment no quarter. Yet, forward as he was, he spoke without malice or vituperation. \"Only twice,\" said Blanche Patch, his secretary during his last 30 years, \"did he ever lose his temper with me.\" Yet she heard no words of praise from him either.

• Publisher: Tribune Publishing Company, LLC