Shaw, Lady Gregory and the Abbey

Bernard Shaw, who made in reputation as a playwright in London, and Augusta Gregory, founder-director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublins, are generally considered as belonging to different theatrical traditions. But in 1909, when the Abbey produced The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet, which had been banned in England, there began a close involvement of Shaw with Irish theatre and a warm personal friendship with Lady Gregory. The complete surviving correspondence between the two, published for the first time in England in 1993, reveals their developing relationship. The editors have drawn upon additional material--other letters, diaries, private memoranda, etc.--to enlarge the correspondence into a comprehensive record of Shaw's important but previously unrecognized contribution to the Irish theatre. His and Lady Gregory's crisp, witty, and informal letters make the book rewarding reading for anyone interested in the theatre.