The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.

London: Constable and Company Ltd,, 1928. Presented to a prominent surgeon First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the half-title "Inscribed for Mr. W. Rowley Bristow at the request of Miss Blanche Patch, G. Bernard Shaw". The recipient, Walter Rowley Bristow (1882-1947), was a British orthopaedic surgeon; the Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital in Surrey (active 1947-1990) was named after him. In a long and distinguished career he served as medical officer in Egypt and Gallipoli in the First World War, consulting surgeon at the Military Orthopaedic Hospital in Shepherd's Bush, consultant at the King Edward VIII Convalescent Home for Officers, and Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons. Blanche Patch (1879-1966) was Shaw's secretary from 1920 till his death in 1950, responsible for converting his writings from Pitman shorthand into longhand typescripts, including this work. Shaw wrote to Nancy Astor about her role in his life: "Patient Patch does my business, types my shorthand for the printer, fills up all chinks in the housekeeping, knits for the soldiers and makes soft dolls for the Red Cross, and knows more about everybody in the village than I learned in thirty five years" (cited in Oakley, p. 195). Though there were some tensions between her and Shaw's wife Charlotte, Patch recorded with regard to this book, "Charlotte told me she was tired of hearing about his intelligent women and their socialism. Both of us implored GBS to hurry up and finish the thing" (ibid.). Shaw's socialist analysis of the modern economy grew out of a reply to his sister-in-law Mary Stewart Cholmondeley, who had asked for a summary of his ideas on socialism for her study circle. The book offers his fullest indictment of capitalism as the source of domestic injustice and international enmity, and argues an egalitarian society is the necessary future. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, decoration to spine and front cover in green and gold, green endpapers, top edge gilt. New endpapers. Aside from trivial rubbing at extremities, a fine, tight, and clean copy. Laurence A187. Ann Oakley, Forgotten Wives: How Women Get Written Out of History, 2021.