Beschreibung:

SHAW (GEORGE BERNARD) and HAYDEN CHURCHArchive of correspondence, interviews and other material assembled by journalist Charles Hayden Church (1878-1956) during a long association with George Bernard Shaw over some twenty years, comprising:
i) Articles and questionnaires, typed by Church and annotated with responses and extensive manuscript amendments by Shaw, giving his opinion on a wide variety of topics such as sex education in schools ("...Sex should not be discussed with children, either by parents or school teachers..."), his vegetarianism ("...I eat cheese, butter and eggs but no flesh, no fowl and no fish... I object to a carnivorous diet not only because I feel instinctively that it is abominable but because it involves a prodigious slavery of men to animals..."), prohibition in the US ("...It may be that life is so miserable in America that people cannot bear it without drugging themselves with alcohol..."), the economic future of England ("...If the Big Ship [Civilisation] goes down, England will go down with it..."), women's success in previously male preserves ("...Why shouldn't they? Miss Johnson did not fly to Australia: a machine did; and she hung on to it and steered it... several women had babies yesterday without any help from a machine. Prove to me that a man has achieved that amazing and arduous feat..."), on longevity ("...we die because we do not know how to live, and kill ourselves by lethal habits..."), suggesting future political programmes ("...I am not God Almighty disguised as GBS... I am advising women to demand the Coupled vote – One Couple One Vote... I advise the whole nation to put before every other reform the invention of an alphabet of at least 42 letters capable of indicating every sound in our speech..."), matrimony ("...a woman's right to motherhood should not be conditional on her taking on a husband..."), adding a scene to the film version of Pygmalion ("...the cinema can afford practically unlimited money..."), artificial insemination ("...raises many questions... I can not forsee what will happen..."), his 91st birthday ("...Birthday! Get out. Go. The man who ever utters the word Birthday in my presence is no friend of mine... Good afternoon. Don't come again..."), an amusing account of faking a séance ("...An evening of miracles followed... After that experience I could not discuss the subject with Oliver Lodge grieving for his lost son, nor with the infatuated author of Sherlock Holmes..."), on the partition of Palestine ("...The Jews and Arabs, backed by local Home Rulers and Imperialists, must fight it out until they are tired of bloodshed and financially bankrupt..."), writing ("...A slosher using ready made phrases and ideas and never stopping to think can write several thousand words a day... I can write the dialogue of a long play easily within two months if I stick at it... the stage business is pure drudgery..."), on Shakespeare ("...a volcano from whom plays burst like lava. I am by comparison a tidy old maid..."), inspiration ("...I can sit down without an idea in my head except that I must write a play; and a play comes. A good play too..."), and much else; with a typed article signed and dated ("G. Bernard Shaw/ 19 May 1933") explaining that his initial sympathies with the Nazi movement were soon expelled by Hitler's 'insanity' over the 'Jewish question': '...an epidemic of a very malignant disease... I appeal to Herr Hitler and Captain Goering to bear in mind that Judophobia is not a part of Fascism, but an incomprehensible excrescence on it... May I add that I am not a Jew? I belong to that still naively anti-Jewish nation, the Irish. The Irish do not know that Jesus Christ was a Jew. Probably ninety nine per cent of the Nazis are equally ignorant...', comments in red and black ink and pencil, c.70 pages, 4to and 8vo, [1930's/40's]
ii) Autograph and typed letters, memos, and postcards signed ("G. Bernard Shaw", "G.B.S."), to Hayden Church, some marked 'Private', with typed letters from Hayden Church to George Bernard Shaw, returned with Shaw's responses, and three from his secretaries, with additional fragments, Shaw's comments mostly written in red ink, c.25 items on various subjects, including an early letter warning Church not to bother his wife ("...Do not exploit Ayot St Lawrence and Mrs Shaw any further... unless you want to have an implacable enemy always at my elbow take note to keep on the right side of her... Pardon the hint..."), his play On the Rocks ("...Provisionally you may call it Piffle..."), death ("...I am a member of the Cremation Society... earth burial should be made illegal. As to my ashes I do not care what becomes of them provided they are inseparably mixed with those of my wife..."), Napoleons inability to procreate ("...Something was too short and the seminal jet did not reach the effective place..."), on Elizabeth II ("...constitutional monarchy is one of the professions for which women are specially fitted..."), etc.; with six autograph envelopes, c.30 pages, 4to and 8vo, Ayot St Lawrence, Whitehall Court, SW1 and Malvern Hotel, Malvern, and elsewhere, [11 September 1930 to 4 August 1950 where dated]
iii) Group of nine photographs taken by George Bernard Shaw, all but one annotated on reverse by Shaw in ink or pencil ("Ayot St Lawrence/ Shaw's Villa/ called Shaw's Corner", "Jehanne la Pucelle/ watching for English soldiers/statue by Claire/ Winston", "Shaw's mulberry tree/ There is another in Malvern but this is his home one", "Shaw's favourite statue/ of Shakespeare/ 15" high/ bought by him in Frinton/ for twenty three/ shillings"), each with a typed caption by Church attached, 83 x 135mm. and smaller, [no date]
iv) Album of press cuttings kept by Hayden Church ("Property of Hayden Church/ Liberal reward to finder"), including letters from John Galsworthy and George Moore c.48 leaves, red cloth titled 'Scraps' on front board, worn and stained, binding loose, folio (282 x 225mm.), [1913-1917]; with additional loose cuttings of his articles on Shaw from Sunday Despatch, New York Times Magazine, Evening Standard etc., [1929-1947]; and a photograph of Hayden Church and his wife on camels in Egypt at the press opening to Tutankhamun's tomb, 1923; group of articles, writings and press cuttings relating to Church's other work such as 'The Real Annie Oakley' and 'The Strange Case of Dr Minor'; with a copy of George Bernard Shaw: Eight Interviews by Hayden Church selected by Edward Connery Lathem, The Perpetua Press, 2002, limited edition of 500 copies.
v) The Plays of Bernard Shaw, 12 vol., inscribed beneath portrait frontispiece in Saint Joan "G. Bernard Shaw to Hayden Church/ Ayot St. Lawrence 20th October 1945", publisher's limp blue leather, spines gilt (slightly worn at ends), housed in original hinged box with facsimile signature on lid (this near detached), small 8vo, Constable, 1926
Footnotes'I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ASSUMPTIONS. THE INTERVIEW IS AT AN END. GOODBYE': THE ARCHIVE OF GEORGE BERNARD SHAW'S 'FAVORITE INTERVIEWER'.
'Characterized by The Saturday Review of Literature in 1946 as being George Bernard Shaw's "favourite interviewer," Hayden Church was a native of Ogdensburg, New York. Of the beginnings of his career it is recorded that he "entered newspaper work in New York City at eighteen and at twenty-one sailed to Europe to write about the Old World for the New." In England, Church soon established himself as a well-known journalist. His many interviews with Shaw spanned a period of more than a quarter of a century... Some were published near-concurrently, with degrees of textual variation, In Britain and the United States, and not infrequently segments of ones from the 1920s and '30's were drawn upon during later years for inclusion within other interview-articles carrying Church's by-line, as featured in various newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic...' (Introduction, George Bernard Shaw: Eight Interviews by Hayden Church selected by Edward Connery Lathem, Vermont, 2002, p.v). He married Olive Ethel Stokes at St Mary's Church, Merton in 1919 and together they travelled as part of the press corps to the official opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1923, a photograph of which is included in the lot.
Within the material in this extensive and illuminating archive, George Bernard Shaw offers a plethora of opinions and pronouncements, as one might expect from the master of the caustic comment. With his usual fluency he deals with subjects such as vegetarianism, world politics, the rights of women, Nazism, and his own writing. Whilst offering detailed answers and in some cases almost completely re-writing Church's articles, he clearly holds Church in a great deal of trust as a fellow journalist, but he is not averse to pulling him up if he feels the questioning is becoming tiresome – for example the answer to 'If you were made Dictator of England, what would you do?' was "probably go mad, like Nero. Why ask silly questions?" and he is often rude and abrasive ("...Your last three questions would take 3 years to answer. The obvious reply is Read my books...").
Throughout, Shaw also demonstrates his strong business acumen. Many of the memos and postcards bear short instructions as to publication and rights, an area where Shaw was clearly an astute operator ("Do not offer this to the New York Times... Offer it to Reuters... They are keen on stuff by me. For an article by me on the atomic bomb they have paid me £250...") and pressing for better deals ("Robert Welles Ritches, Universal Service inc. would pay more...", "...Tell the Beacon Syndicate to go to any place sufficiently remote to close the subject for the moment..." and "...Don't forget the European rights..."). Much of the material has been signed, dated and authorised by Shaw for publication ("...The copyright of all these belongs to me; so you need not bother about it. Use them as you please..."). The archive has remained in the family until now.
Provenance: Charles Hayden Church (1878-1956); his daughter Yvonne Curtis Hayden Church (1920-2017); thence by descent to the present owner.Additional informationAuction informationBuyers Premium and ChargesFor all Sales categories, buyer's premium excluding Cars, Motorbikes, Wine, Whisky and Coin & Medal sales, will be as follows:Buyer's Premium Rates
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