George Bernard Shaw
Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant.
London: Grant Richards, 1898.

The "unpleasant" plays are: Widowers’ Houses, The Philanderer, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession; the "pleasant" plays are: Arms and the Man, Candida, The Man of Destiny, and You Never Can Tell.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

In 1901, Shaw authorized Grant Richards to issue his plays in separate volumes mainly for use by professional and amateur performing companies, as well as for the general public. Subsequently Constable continued this practice. This was the first separate impression of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, with a preface written for this impression, and offered for sale by the Stage Society as 'The Stage Society’s Series of Plays I'.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This is the first American edition of the Preface that Shaw wrote for the 1902 English edition of Mrs. Warren’s Profession. It was unauthorized, but had Shaw’s approval and even encouragement.

The Apology begins: "Mrs. Warren's Profession has been performed at last, after a delay of only eight years; and I have once more shared with Ibsen the triumphant amusement of startling all but the strongest-headed of the London theater critics clean out of the practice of their profession."

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This was the first work of Shaw’s issued by Constable. Under their agreement, Shaw was his own publisher in England, and Constable was his commissioned distributor. It contains "The Revolutionist’s Handbook," written by the fictional John Tanner, and "Maxims for Revolutionists."

This copy is inscribed by the author to his long-time friend, Gilbert Murray, Regius professor of Greek at Oxford, and the model for Adolphus Cusins in Major Barbara.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This copy is inscribed "to J. E. Vedrenne from G. Bernard Shaw 17th June 1907." John Eugene Vedrenne was co-manager with Harley Granville Barker of the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, London, which produced a number of Shaw’s plays between 1904 and 1907.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This is the first appearance of this play, whose working title included the subtitle, "Machiavelli Modernized," deleted by Shaw from the final page-proof.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Of the 500 earliest copies of this work, 400 were sold during private performances at the Royal Court Theatre and have the imprint "Price One Shilling," while the remaining 100 were rubber-stamped "N.E.T." in purple ink. An example of each is in the collection. There were four additional printings of this play in 1909, all distinguished by Dan Laurence in his Bernard Shaw: A Bibliography. "Press cuttings" are known in America as newspaper clippings.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

In 1909, Shaw began to have "Rehearsal Copies" of his not-yet-published plays printed for use in the theater or for copyright readings. The first of these was The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. Androcles and the Lion was the seventh of Shaw’s plays to be printed in this way, and the earliest of thirteen in the Sidney Albert Collection.

Androcles and the Lion opened at the St James’s Theatre, London, on August 28, 1913. Although it received high praise from most of the drama critics, it was not a popular play and was withdrawn after 52 performances.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Attributed to Shaw, ca. 1912.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

First American (left) and first British (below) publications of Pygmalion.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Shaw wrote the part of Eliza Doolittle for Mrs. Patrick Campbell who performed it in the first London production at His Majesty’s Theatre, beginning on April 11, 1914, and in the first American production in English at the Park Theatre in New York, beginning on October 12, 1914. A German translation by Siegfried Trebitsch had been mounted at the Deutsches Theatre in New York beginning on March 24, 1914.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

The Lord Chamberlain’s office passed The Inca of Perusalem for performance on the condition that "the make-up of the Inca does not too closely resemble the German Emperor" and that personal mention of the Inca’s Grandmother (Queen Victoria), the Inca’s Uncle (Edward VII), and the Inca’s Cousin (George V) be omitted. Shaw complied.

When the play was performed in Dublin in 1917, Irish Nationalists hailed it as a satire on British belligerence. As a result of his unpopular stance on the war, Shaw used the phrase "By a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature" instead of his name here and elsewhere.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Heartbreak House was first produced by the Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre in New York beginning on November 10, 1920.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Saint Joan was first produced by the Theatre Guild at the Garrick Theatre, New York, beginning on December 28, 1923, with Winifred Lenihan in the title role. In a letter to Sidney Cockerell, Shaw wrote that he was the author of Saint Joan only "in the sense that Michael Angelo was the architect of St Peter’s … I have had only to pull it together and fit it in."

This copy was signed by 22 members of the cast of the English production, including Dame Sybil Thorndike, Sir Lewis Casson (her husband), Raymond Massey, and Jack Hawkins.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This Edition de Luxe, with sixteen designs in color and monochrome by Charles Ricketts, was the first illustrated edition of one of Shaw’s works. Shaw did not like it. As he wrote to Archibald Henderson in 1946 in an inscribed copy of the work, it was "a handsome object; but it is too big for a book: its size makes it unreadable. The pictures were designed as theatre costumes and not as book illustrations. A reduction in size would have spoilt them … It was impossible to reconcile the two incompatibles. The result was a monster."

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This "Pocket Edition de Luxe," also advertised as the Globe Edition, was the first collected edition of Shaw’s plays in England.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This play was first performed in Warsaw in the Polish version by Floryan Sobieniowski and was produced in England by Sir Barry Jackson at the Malvern Festival on the 19^th of August, 1929.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Among the characters in this play is Private Napoleon Alexander Trotsky Meek, very obviously based on T. E. Lawrence. Private Meek serves every function in the army unit run by Colonel Tallboys, and in the end effectively assumes command. Lawrence discussed the play with Shaw while it was in draft form and made several suggestions for improving Meek’s lines. These were all adopted by the playwright.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

This issue of Theatre World featured a 12-page article on Too True To Be Good under the heading, "The Play of the Moment." Also in the collection are issues of Theatre Arts Magazine and Play Pictorial, all with many photographs from specific productions of Shaw’s plays.

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection

Sidney P. Albert -- George Bernard Shaw Collection