AN INTERVIEW WITH G. B. SHAW

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5330, 17 February 1947, Page 7

AN INTERVIEW WITH G. B. SHAW

I had been in London a few weeks and was anxious to do Shaw, but although I had gone to his h' me, which at that time was in one of the houses which the Adam brothers had erected on Adelphi Terrace, I had no luck, writes S. J. Woolf in his boob "Here I Am." 1 I felt, however, there was some way of reaching the Irish author. Accordingly, I sent him a letter, in which I recalled that some years before he had written that the reason he had posed for Dodin was because he believed that was the only way he could achieve fame. "That is quite true, as far as Europe is concerned," I continued, "but as for America, with true Shavian modesty, may I say that immortality will not be yours until I have drawn you." Then I went on to tell him that it was to achieve fame for him in America that I had made the trip to Europe and that it would cost him but half an hour of his time, a small price to pay for immortality. The following day I received a characteristic Shavian post-card. In the well known small hand he wrote: "I have now considerable experience as an artist's model, but my terms — about 3750 dollars an hour — are prohibitive. Also I shall not be disengaged for a year to come." I received this note on the fourth of July and I immediately sat down and answered it. 'My dear Mr. Shaw: Your price for posing is acceptable to me. My price for a drawip^ is the same amount. "You do not have to be disengaged while I draw. I am leaving on the 8th. When shall I come? If you could pose this afternoon and sign the drawing to-day, think what it would mean to the American people to have two vital documents signed on the 4th of July. That afternoon I received a phone call. *