My Dear Loraine: Bernard Shaw’s Letters to an Actor

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Robert Loraine (1876-1935) was a decorated war hero, an actor, and a surrogate son to Bernard Shaw. After triumphantly launching Shaw’s masterpiece Man and Superman in America in the lead role of John Tanner, and creating roles in other plays by Shaw, Loraine suspended his acting career to serve as a pilot in World War I. After twice being seriously wounded, Loraine returned to acting in London and New York, achieving memorable successes punctuated by depressing failures, and often dependent on morphine to control the ongoing pain from his wounds. Throughout all of this, Shaw, like a stern but benevolent father, was a constant presence: advising, cajoling, encouraging, and scolding on matters financial, theatrical, and personal.

This selection of twenty-five letters from Shaw to Loraine, fourteen of them published for the first time, eleven published for the first time in complete and accurate transcriptions, were written between 1909 and 1933 against a background of war and changing theatrical values. Introduced, edited, and annotated by Shaw scholar Leonard Conolly, the letters document what was for both men–outside of their marriages (childless in Shaw’s case)–among the most significant relationships of their lives.