Even during his lifetime, Shaw was a literary phenomenon. The four journals pictured here were all devoted to his work—published by societies created in his name. In 1941, admirers began the Shaw Society of England, which produced lectures, exhibitions, bulletins, and publications such as The Shavian. Other branches and new societies appeared around the world, including the Bernard Shaw Society in New York City, which, to this day, produces The Independent Shavian, a complement to the British original.

Shaw, himself, wanted nothing to do with such organizations, and wrote to the Shaw Society of England in 1941: “The Browning Society was a terror to Browning, Shelley was dead, Shakespear [sic] was dead, I shall soon be dead. We all provided a rallying point for the co-operation and education of kindred spirits and a forum for their irreconcilable controversies. So go ahead, but don’t bother me about it. I am old, deaf, and dotty. In short, a Has Been.”