Evening star., 1950-11-02
George Bernard Shaw Leading Playwright the Century, Dies Aqe
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.ment complicated his condition.
A minor operation eaSed the trou-
BILE and he was brought home Oc-
tober 4, but suffered a relapse
Sunday.
Mrs. Alice Laden, his house
keeper at the brick cottage, "Shaws
Corner" announced the death to
reporters. He had lapsed into a
= coma at 3 am. yesterday.
A little while later a manservant
hung little notice on the garden
gate. Handwritten on a sheet
from Shaw's own writing pad and
pasted to a thin card, it said:
"Mr. Bernard Shaw passed
peacefully away at one minute to
five o'clock this morning.
From the Golfers of his genius
he enriched the world"
Funeral plans were announced
this morning. Shaw'S body will
be cremated after private serv-
ice at crematorium in Northwest
London. The service will be held
at pm. 01 am. EST Monday
His friends expect his ashes to
be mixed with those of his wife.
Charlotte, who died in 1943, and
scattered over the Shaw garden.
Only two nurses were with the
elderly man at his death. DR..
Thomas Probyn, Shaw's physician,
hurried into the house 20 minutes
later. F. E. Loewenstein, the
playwright's longtime biographer,
told reporters Shaw died peace
fully without regaining conscious
ness.
Tt was typical Of the boupdless
ego Of George Bernard Shaw that
he considered himself the "dra-
matte emperor of Europe" the |
rightful successor and perhaps |
even the superior of Shakespeare.
He once underlined this by writing |
a fifth act to one of the Bard's !
dramas. r
Most of his critics agreed that |
G.. B. S. was the dominating fig
ure in the modern theater, but
many also agreed with Biographer
Hesketh Pearson that his great
ness lay mot in his beliefs, but in
his humor, not in his preaching,
but his personality"
It was indeed, that barbed wit
and acidulous personality which
made the Irishman known to more
Americans than his more than so
plays, his novels and his essays.
THE secret of success is to Of
fend the greatest number of peo-
ple," he said.
Liked to Play Satirica1 Sage.
He backed up the formula with
q seeming roguish delight in play
ing the irascible, satirical sage,
whose observations on world af-
fairs broke long periods when he
was unapproachable at his home
in Ayot st. Lawrence, 40 miles
from London.
For America. which he visited
in 1888 and 1886. Mr.. Shaw re- {
served some of his sharpest
punches. .
ITO arouse their .tAmericans) !
undying devotion, all that is neces- I
sary is to hold them up to ridi- =
cule," he said. Dickens won them
by calling them windbags, swim
dlers and assassins.
Sinclair Lewis knocked George
Washington off his pedestal,
substituted Babbitt and became
Americas leading author. L
7, myself, have been particu-fi
larly careful never to say a civil I
word to the United States. III
have Scoffed at them as a S
Nation Of villages and defined I
the 100 per cent American as SO
per cent idiot.
Never Slipped Up.
But they adore me and will =
60 on doing so until, in a moment =
of senile sentimentality, I say
something nice about them. Then
they will suspect me of being
cheapskate and drop me like a r
hot potato" q
There's no evidence that G. B. S. S
ever slipped up, even in his ninth I
decade, though the self recogni- y
ton of his unique personality
would seem to say that the play d
wright had penned for himself o
the pithiest role of them all.
Americans knew the tall, spare p
figure and once redbeard turned r
snowy white as well as any of n
their own heroes. One writer said Z
the white hair and beard made c
him look as antiseptic as his
prose style" j
His eyes were called blue and n
self conscious" his nose "big and n
blunt, his eyebrows shaggy. and n
Mr.. Shaw himself said his ears +
were so big that on windy days i
my nurse had to hold me by the S
waistband to prevent my being s
blown away" C
Most Americans knew he was
a strict vegetarian, that he never
touched alcohol - influence of r
having had a drinking father.
They found it difficult to v
reconcile his avowed belief in S
Communism with marked contra /
dictions such as support of the
Marshall Plan, and an abiding c
belief in God. '
Wrote Play at SO.
Mr. Shaw's remarkable pro- =
ductivity, spanning rs years, con- !
tinued almost to the end of his ,
life. He wrote two plays after his r
93d birthday, both of them pro- s
duced despite an obvious descent 3
in quality.
Thus he lived out one of his
credos:
II want to be thoroughly used r
IN when I die for the harder {