Shaw was often asked to endorse literary works, and here responds to a request for an introduction to the anthology, Duffin’s Quintessence, a book he considered too shallow to warrant his time or anyone else’s: “I can understand people writing books about other people’s books if they are letterstruck and can’t produce first hand work. What I can’t understand is any publisher publishing them.”

Shaw was unwilling to follow any mind but his own, and he undertook extraordinary measures to secure time for his own work. To the masses who sent him letters and gifts, Shaw resorted to an arsenal of pre-printed post-cards. As one card from the exhibition states, “Mr. Bernard Shaw, though he is always glad to receive interesting letters or books, seldom has time to acknowledge them; for his correspondence has increased to such an extent that he must either give up writing private letters or give up writing anything else.”