History of the society

The Shaw Society was founded on 26 July 1941, Bernard Shaw's eighty-fifth birthday. He wanted nothing to do with the idea, and it was his curious letter of rejection that contained the phrase we quote above, and which was eagerly incorporated into the constitution of the Society. Reproduced below is the letter as Shaw wrote it:

The Browning Society was a terror to

Browning,

Shelley was dead,

Shakespear was dead,

I shall soon be dead.

We all provided a rallying point for the co-operation and education of kindred spirits and a forum for their irreconcilable controversies.

So go ahead, but don't bother me about it. I am old, deaf, and dotty. In short, a Has Been.

G. Bernard Shaw,

4th Nov. 1941.

Ayot St Lawrence, Welwyn, Herts.