Shaw Offstage (SHAW vol. 9)

The newest volume of SHAW emphasizes Shaw's mastery of nondramatic forms. In "My Dear Dorothea: Shaw's Earliest Sketch," Laura Tahir examines Shaw's first sustained literary effort, an instructional tract for the moral education of a young girl. Ray Bradbury introduces Shaw's "The Best Books for Children," a previously unpublished essay offering thoughts on children's literature. Stanley Weintraub evaluates Shaw's political ballads, published anonymously in the Star in 1588–89. Included in the volume are Shaw's contribution to The Salt of the Earth, a collaborative novel published in the World in 1890 introduced by Fred D. Crawford, and "Civilization and the Soldier," an essay reflecting on the nature of the British Empire in the context of the Boer War. Lee W. Saperstein introduces Shaw's previously unpublished "Orkney and Shetland," a short travel guide that Shaw wrote for the Royal Automobile Club.

Shaw's nondramatic writing frequently illuminates the plays. Stuart E. Baker analyzes The Quintessence of Ibsenism to define Shavian realism as it applies to the plays, and Michael J. Holland explores Shaw's short fiction to trace the early development of techniques that served Shaw well in his drama. Howard Ira Einsohn looks at the relationship between The Intelligent Woman's Guide and The Apple Cart.

Three articles examine Shaw's nondramatic concerns in a biographical and historical context. In "The Black Girl and Some Lesser Quests: 1932–1934," Leon H. Hugo traces the origin of The Black Girl. Vivian Ducat's "Bernard Shaw and the King's English" tells of Shaw's involvement with the BBC Advisory Committee on Spoken English. In "The Bernard Shaw/Edward Gordon Craig Feud," James Fisher explores Shaw and Craig's public and private relationship, which included disagreements involving dramatic theory and the publication of the Shawl Terry correspondence.

SHAW 9 emphasizes Shaw's mastery of nondramatic forms and shows the extent to which, for Shaw, drama remained only one of many vehicles available for conveying the Shavian viewpoint.