first edition
1901 · London
by Shaw, [G.] Bernard.
Sm. London: Grant Richards, 1901. Sm. 8vo, xxxviii, 308. With 3 photogravure plates. Original olive cloth, backstrip browned. A good copy with a fine association. § First edition, inscribed by Shaw's wife: "Louise S. Broadwood from Charlotte F. Shaw. Jan. 1901. Later rubberstamp "ex libris Gilbert Bagnani". A fascinating association copy. Louise S. Broadwood was a suffragette. "The strain of writing these plays, while his critical and political work went on unabated, so sapped Shaw’s strength that a minor illness became a major one. In 1898, during the process of recuperation, he married his unofficial nurse, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish heiress and friend of Beatrice and Sidney Webb. The apparently celibate marriage lasted all their lives, Shaw satisfying his emotional needs in paper-passion correspondences with Ellen Terry, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and others." (Britannica).
(Inventory #: 125031)