The dead failure of the Shaw Memorial appeal is surpris-
ing, and raises interesting questions. To ask for £250,000 and get less than £1,000 is in fact not merely failure; it is debacle. And why ? Shaw had devotees in abundance. Right down to his death most of his plays could fill any theatre. Some of them, like John Bull's Other Island, of course, date fatally, but others, like You Never Can Tell or Man and Superman, seemed to have established themselves as classics. Some people, no doubt, thought that Shaw publicised himself so effectively during his lifetime that there was no need to publicise him retrospectively after death. Some may have been alienated by his perversity in leaving the bulk of his fortune to establish a foundation for the reform of the alphabet (though it seems, rather surprisingly, that very little will be available for this purpose after all). Shaw himself may have been right in predicting that his reputation would go into eclipse for a time after his death and then shine out as bright as ever. But why should it go into eclipse ? That is the question
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