Bidspirit auction | SHAW GEORGE BERNARD: (1856-1950)

SHAW GEORGE BERNARD: (1856-1950) - SHAW GEORGE BERNARD: (1856-1950) Irish playwright, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1925. T.L.S., G. Bernard Shaw , one page, 4to, Whitehall Court, London, 22nd March 1929, to Mrs. Charrington Martin. Shaw announces ´I have not refused anybody anything in connection with the letters´ and adds that they all appear to belong to Mr. Gabriel Wells ( ´who paid, I suppose, a handsome price for them´ ), further asking his correspondent why she didn´t receive the money for them, and remarking ´When Charles died they must have passed into your possession; and if he left everything to you they must have become your property. Is it possible that you threw them away or sold them as waste paper, not knowing their value? If so, I am afraid there is no remedy; for your property in them extended only to the actual sheets of paper and not to the copyright, which belongs to me. Still, as no copies were in existence no one could publish the letters without having access to the sheets of paper, which were entirely under your control´ . Shaw concludes his letter by asking to be informed as to exactly how the matter stands and poses two further questions, ´What became of the letters after Charles´s death? Did they pass out of your possession; and, if so, how?´ . With a thin, light strip of tape residue to each corner from previous mounting, none affecting the text of the letter or signature, G Charles Charrington Martin (1854-1926) British actor and barrister, a member of the Fabian Society. Martin´s first wife was the English stage actress Janet Achurch (1863-1916) best known as a pioneer of major roles in the works of George Bernard Shaw. Together Martin and Achurch took over the management of London´s Novelty Theatre in 1889 where they staged and performed in the first professional English language production of Henrik Ibsen´s A Doll´s House. The present letter is written to Martin´s second wife, Thirza Rebeca Charrington.