Evening star., 1939-07-30
Biographer
Speaks Of
Mr.. Shaw
To Be Remembered
Longest, He Says,
For Saint joan
BY John Selby,
Associated Press Stan Writer.


score of years, probably will be re-
membered longest for his "St. Joan, y
thinks Archibald Henderson.
For IS years Shaw's biographer
and devoted admirer, Henderson still
Is able to view him effectively, and
to evaluate the Shaw product dis
passionately.
And Henderson himself is in q
peculiar position because Of the
bearded dramatist with the forked
lightning in his inkwell.
Almost every literate American
knows that Henderson is Shaw's on
cial biographer.
But not one out of ten knows that
also he is mathematician of great
repute, correspondent of Einstein
and one Of the most popular and best
known teachers at the University OF
North Carolina.
Henderson will talk on Shaw or
will elucidate the theory of relatively
with equal aplomb. His sense OF
humor is both lusty and keen, and he
enjoys jokes on himself with Cat
times disconcerting heartiness.
For example, he tells of the time
he was lecturing on relativity in
Town Hall, New York.
"All through the talk I noticed an
elderly gentleman just in front of
me who seemed skeptical, to say the
least" says Henderson. when I
finished the chairman suggested that
the meeting would adjourn to the
planetarium. The old gentleman
rose, and caught the chairman's eye.
Ibid you say planetarium,' he
asked, or sanitarium'?"
At which Henderson's huge laugh
bursts out, sounding strangely in
congruous in the darkness Of his
house.
Henderson talks from the depths
Of big chair, sprawling his long
legs over the dark carpet and
wrinkling his white suit with aban-
don. He fingers a copy of Shaw's
latest play as he talks-it is
Geneva" which Henderson calls
mot a play at all, but an explora-
ton into totalitarian thinking"
Shaw simply calls in the dictators
and lets them talk the question out.
But DR.. Henderson believes Shaw's
new play may. perhaps, be more
dramatic. 1t will be about the time
of Charles II, Shaw writes him, but
Nell Gwyn is not in it, and Isaac
Newton Is. That at least gives a
cue-Dr. Henderson is amused be-
cause Newton's profession and his
are similar.
Saint Joan" is most likely to
survive Of all Shaw plays because,
Henderson believes, it exemplifies
a timeless idea. Joan was fighting
for pure independence of judgment,
he believes, and not merely for a
church plan. Incidentally, although
DR.. Henderson saw the London
premiere of Saint JOAN" he liked
the New York production with Wini-
fred Lehman far better.
Candida" also will survive, he
perhaps, the most Immediately sue
cessful OF the lot, and Man and
Superman" has importance. Hen
derson thinks that, for him, the
play which seems least valuable
is You Never Can Tell" This
was the direct cause Of his friend
ship with Shaw, however.
The story of how Henderson,
dazed with the brilliance of the
Shaw plays, finally wrote Shaw in
1904, was accepted as his biographer
and waited for months to get ma
terial from the dramatist is well
known.
Not 50 we'll known is the fact
that the material came at last in a
54-page letter in Shaw's tiny hand
writing and that some years ago
Gabriel Wells paid $2,400 for the
letter, one of the longest in mod
ern times.
Shaw for years has been retreat
ing from technique, in a sense,
Henderson thinks. The older he gets
the less interested he is in con-
struction; the thought is all that
interests him. Therefore these late
plays live in the library better
than on the stage.
Henderson is (naturally) full Of
Shaw anecdote. He thinks Shaw's
finishing the frank Harris biog-
raphy of Shaw a typical gesture.
Harris had been very harsh in
the part he had written before he
died; Shaw placidly wrote the rest
In the same key and then comment
ed in his foreword just as if he
had not helped pillory himself.
Typical also was Shaw's fury when
In his recent illness the news
papers found out that he had been
given some sort of beef blood in
jections and accused him of de-
serting his vegetarian principles.
But Henderson also is one of the
few men who have seen Shaw fac
ing failure. A few years ago Shaw
made a trip around the world He
was begged to visit America and re-
fused. Finally he was persuaded
to leave his ship in New York Har-
Dor long enough to make one speech
at the Metropolitan Opera House-a
matter of two hours.
Practically the entire audience
was drawn from two camps-the
radicals. who sat upstairs, and the
moneyed curiosity seekers, who had
the better seats. Everything Shaw
said fell between the two camps.
When the discouraged dramatist
returned to his ship Henderson and
the few others who greeted him
there assured him the speech had
gone well.
Shaw looked Henderson straight
n the eye. 1T was fiat failure" !"
he said simply. AS, of course, 1t was.