Newspaper Article

LIKING, OR NOT LIKING, MR. SHAW

Smith, Stephen

1990

Overview

Is there such a thing, then, as a definitive biography? The value of his [George Bernard Shaw], [Michael Holroyd] says, comes not only from its access to new and unpublished correspondence or diaries, but in the chemistry of the collaboration between writer and subject, Michael Holroyd and G.B.S. \"Now, nobody knows if that collaboration is going to work. What is new is my imagination. I am different from G.K. Chesterton, who wrote a book on Shaw, and from Hesketh Pearson. And I would like to think that the virtue of not having the idea of a definitive biography of anyone is that subjects can be recreated for modern times.\" Nerves play on the instinct of any writer; there are other threats as well, often hidden and then suddenly revealed. For Mr. Holroyd there was the danger that he might drown under the sheer tide of resources. Shaw's was, he believes, \"a most extraordinary life, in all its limitations and strengths,\" but he can't allow that single sentiment to write the biography. \"What I must be on guard against is not aggrandizing my subject because I have to commit so much time to him. So I've tried to give people who disagreed with Shaw -- G.K. Chesterton or H.G. Wells -- good lines, lines against Shaw, to make a proper debate. So there's no right or wrong, but you want something dramatic to happen and to divide readers to some extent, as long as it's something reasonable.\" As for what happens after Shaw is finished, Mr. Holroyd says he hasn't been accosted yet by a minor character wanting the next biography. He doesn't know, in fact, whether there will be another one. The final Shaw volume is now being written and is due out in 1991. After that he is committed to compiling a three-volume set of Shaw chronology, itinerary, notes and companion-pieces to the plays. But before he launches into those, he's promised himself a good, long holiday. In the meantime he makes sure that his life isn't overrun by Shaw, like him or not. \"I do think that I could spend a week with someone without that person knowing that I was writing about Shaw,\" he says. \"There are other aspects of life. I do not want to become a G.B.S. bore.\"&

• Publisher: Postmedia Network Inc
• Subject: Holroyd, Michael / John, Augustus / Kingsmill, Hugh / Shaw, George Bernard