Beschreibung:

SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD. Three typed letters signed ("G. Bernard Shaw") and one autograph postcard signed (initials) to William J. Brooks, London, 7 March 1904 - 2 December 1907. Together 3 1/4 pages, 4to, mainly double-spaced, and 1 page, 12mo, the typed letters on Shaw's imprinted stationery, a few ink corrections by him on one letter, a slight fold tear in a letter, another creased at center fold. [ With :] [Election Address], London 1904, 8vo, 15 pp., original pictorial wrappers (with photograph of Shaw on rear wrapper), stapled as issued, covers a little soiled and wrinkled , FIRST EDITION, an election address written by Shaw for himself and his running mate William Nevill M. Geary, who were Progressive candidates in South St. Pancras for the London County Council in the 5 March 1904 election, Laurence A55 (issue b -- no priority). "DEMOCRACY NEVER SELECTS A FIRST-RATE MAN: ITS VITUE IS THAT IT ALWAYS CHOOSES THE SECOND BEST" 7 March 1904 (two days after losing the election to the London County Council): "Do not waste any more time on my cause in South St. Pancras or on the C.C. [County Council]. The Progressives at Spring Gardens regarded my defeat as second in importance only to their general victory...Your exertions on Saturday were amazing. Indeed you have all through been the only sort of supporter I care about..." 16 March 1907 (turning down a request by Brooks to contest a seat for Parliament): "...Suppose I accept it, just think of what would ensue. You would have your candidate pouring forth a succession of books, plays, and prefaces which to the average North Herts elector would be nothing but a string of blasphemy and sedition. I am at present getting through the press the last sheets of my Prefaces to John Bull's Other Island and Major Barbara ; both of these contain dozen of sentences -- in fact hundreds of sentences -- which, if quoted by the Daily Mail and reproduced in the local papers...would make the whole county a present to the Conservatives for ever...When I am on the verge of becoming a doddering old ass of 70, and might as well go and twaddle in Parliament as do anything else, I shall be too old to begin...when I and Sidney Webb let the nineties pass by without attempting to get into Parliament, we virtually made up our minds, without quite telling ourselves so, that we were not heading for a parliamentary career. You might try the experiment of offering the seat to Webb...And what about H.G. Wells?...For ordinary political purposes, you may regard me as a first-rate man. Well, Democracy never selects a first-rate man: its virtue is that it always chooses the second best. I recommend you to look for...Some worthy chap with plenty of physical endurance like Gladstone or Roosevelt or [William Jennings] Bryan. That is the stuff of which Democratic heroes are made." 9 July 1907 (the postcard): "Call it The Ratepayer Between The Millstones . The phrase 'comfortable classes' would not suit me, as I shall shew them that they are not comfortable." (5)