Born in Dublin, Shaw made a name for himself in London as a music and theater critic during the 1880s and 1890s, writing for The Pall Mall Gazette, The Saturday Review and other publications. His career as a playwright took off on April 21, 1894, when his Arms and the Man, which explores the futility of war, opened to great acclaim in London. His foremost international success, it represented the beginning of his recognition as a serious dramatist. Likened by some to Shakespeare, Shaw combined satire, comedy and social criticism in his more than 50 plays. Additional plays include Saint Joan, Man and Superman and Pygmalion the inspiration for the popular musical My Fair Lady.
Our brief note is both a departure from the heavier matters that occupied Shaw during this period as well as a characteristic example of his dry wit. Yet, there might have been a political subtext as Williams, the author of several books on health including the 1925 book The Science of the Art of Living, had previously expressed anti-suffragist views including a note “in the letters column of the Times, claiming to have empirical evidence of the ‘suffragist hysteria’ connected to women’s physiological emergencies,” (“May Sinclair: Idealism-Feminism and the Suffragist Movement,” Rhetor, Gough). Shaw was an outspoken supporter of universal suffrage, even penning a pro-suffrage play, Press Cuttings, intended to raise funds for the cause.
The Daily Chronicle was a liberal newspaper owned by former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George from 1918 to 1927, over which he exerted editorial influence even after its sale to another owner.
Folded with a small piece missing at the lower right and tape discoloration at the other corners, otherwise fine.
