Letter

Autograph letter, single page, oblong octavo, signed "G. Bernard Shaw"; approximately 200 words addressed to Alderman Donald McGregor, Jr. (December 1894) ---- "You shall certainly have one of the spare notes for yourself, on condition that you don't return the compliment. You will assuredly be one of the fifteen ablest candidates. The worst of it is, so will I, even from the business point of view. I heartily wish I had so good an excuse for retiring as that poetic incapacity to see the difference between a ten roomed house and an eight roomed one which you so complimentarily ascribe to me. I know your business man perfectly well: he looks wise, sits tight, sees what was done last time & does it over again, and will let you cheat him in the way he is accustomed to sooner than let you put 1000 pounds into his pocket in a new way. There is about as much intelligent observation done by the average rating committee man in viewing the premises as by the average coroner's juror in viewing the body. If you can shew [sic] me a house harder to judge than an opera or a symphony, I'll eat it: there!" ---- In April 1894, eight months before these lines were penned, Shaw's "Arms and the Man" opened to great acclaim in London. It represented the true beginning of his recognition as a popular dramatist. A wonderful letter capturing Shaw's jocular style and inimitable hand; professionally matted and framed, ideal for display.…