Letters from George Bernard Shaw to Henry Festing Jones (1912-15)
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was a regular commentator on Butler’s works. In the preface to his own play Major Barbara (written in 1905), Shaw expressed bewilderment at the fact that ‘so extraordinary a study of English life’ as The Way of All Flesh hadn’t caused more of a stir among the public, and declared Butler ‘the greatest English writer of the latter half of the 19th century’.
Shaw attended and gave speeches at some of the Erewhon Dinners. The remark in his 1912 letter (displayed here) about mankind being ‘of two sexes’ refers to the fact that previously only men had been invited to the dinners. The last dinner, in 1914, put an end to this custom, and Mrs Shaw was invited to set the date.