106. Bernard Shaw to The Nation

From The Nation, (correspondence August 24, 1921)

My Dear Mr. Shaw:

I understand a number of friends are writing to you and urging you to come to the United States. May I say how gratified we of The Nation would be should you come to us?

Yours very sincerely,
Oswald Garrison Villard, Editor


Dear Mr. Villard:

This conspiracy has been going on for years; but in vain is the net spread in sight of the bird. I have no intention either of going to prison with Debs or taking my wife to Texas, where the Ku Klux Klan snatches white women out of hotel verandas and tars and feathers them. If I were dependent on martyrdom for a reputation, which happily I am not, I could go to Ireland. It is a less dangerous place; but then the voyage is shorter and much cheaper.
You are right in your impression that a number of persons are urging me to come to the United States. But why on earth do you call them my friends?

G. Bernard Shaw