Footnotes

'THE BIOGRAPHER AT WORK': A HITHERTO UNTRACED CARICATURE BY MAX OF BERNARD SHAW USURPING HIS OWN BIOGRAPHY. This drawing comes from the collection of Bernard Shaw's biographer, Hesketh Pearson, who had written the biography of Max's half-brother, Sir Beerbohm Tree, and whose brilliant biography of Sydney Smith, The Smith of Smiths, found in Max (as in Wodehouse) a great admirer. Pearson's classic life of Shaw, Bernard Shaw: His Life and Personality appeared in 1942, and was indeed taken over by its subject in the manner depicted by this caricature. As Michael Holroyd, biographer of both Shaw and Pearson writes: 'By the end [Shaw] had given so much of what he called his "unique private history" to the book that Pearson suggested that his contribution should be shown in the text between square brackets or by indentation. But Shaw was horrified at the thought of his collaboration being exposed... "Not on your life, Hesketh," he wrote. "What I have written I have written in your character, not in my own"'. Nevertheless, Shaw "felt so pleased by Pearson's success that, having warned him never to reveal his co-authorship, he began speaking openly of his involvement" (Bernard Shaw, 1997, p. 702).

However, it is not Hesketh Pearson who is being bombarded with information in this caricature, but rather an earlier victim, Archibald Henderson, whose George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works had appeared in 1911, and had also been taken over by its subject in the way described (see Holroyd, pp. 369-70). This identification is confirmed by Shaw's addressing the biographer as "Professor"; for Henderson was not only an ardent Shavian, pumping out a stream of biographical studies of his hero, mostly ghosted by their subject, but also Professor Pure Mathematics at North Carolina. A date of around 1911 is also suggested by Henderson's attire and the drawing's style. Any doubts are removed by the survival of a companion piece, numbered '2' and of the same size as ours, now at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas (4.8/ 65.227). This is captioned 'After the Publication' (and rather loses its point without having ours coming before it): 'What name? ... Ah, to be sure; and let me tell you, Mr Henderson, I've just been writing to the press to point out some of your inaccuracies, and to say I can't wade through your pages, and have no further use for you'. Both caricatures were sent by Max to Shaw on 6 November 1911: 'I have... found these two vague skeletons for two caricatures. They were done a few months ago, and "left at that" because I couldn't remember Henderson's features well enough to make further operations worth while' (Rupert Hart-Davies, A Catalogue of the Caricatures of Max Beerbohm, 1972, no. 1496; our caricature can now be assigned the catalogue no. 1495, previously left blank).