G.B.S. A Postscript
Potpourri
by. Harper, $2.75.
Though hurriedly thrown together, this short supplement to the author’s 1942 biography of G.B.S. is very good reading and contains some worth-while addenda to the record. In the first section, Pearson describes the trials of being biographer to an incorrigible stage-manager such as Shaw, and he tells a number of anecdotes which he was not allowed to print — Shaw’s memory, says Pearson, grew capricious in his old age and he denied stories about himself which were very probably true. The second half of the book covers the last years of Shaw’s life; it includes some revealing details about his relations with his wife, supplied to Pearson by a lady friend of Shaw’s. Pearson once asked Shaw which of his activities he expected to get the highest marks for in heaven. “If God starts giving me examination marks,” said Shaw, “there will be serious trouble between us.”