SHAW, George Bernard (1856-1950). Playwright.
Extensive annotations on the subject of capital punishment written in the margins of a letter to him from the editor of Penny Pictorial Magazine. The typewritten letter to Shaw, 1 page 4to, is dated 8 August 1910 and his reply, written around three margins of the letter and signed 'G.B.S.' is dated 10 August 1910.
A highly characteristic effusion, rather rambling in its argument but typically outrageous:

'... No punishment of any sort is justifiable. The deliberate infliction of a malicious injury cannot be whitewashed by calling it punishment or justice. But to kill a man who is more trouble than he is worth seems to me to be simple common sense. Our society is so wretchedly constructed at present that life is no great catch ... I should not punish a man (or woman) for being idle; but I should certainly kill him for being useless and expensive just as I should weed a garden. ... Punishing people is mere sentimentality and superstition when it is not honest ill temper and vengeance. ...'

Shaw was later to write an influential article on capital punishment in the Atlantic Monthly of June 1948.
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