Furious at Death

Celebrating Shaw, a Serious Optimist
By BEN BRANTLEY
. . .
And while Shaw wrote brilliantly articulate letters throughout his life, none, perhaps, are as moving as one in which he recognized that there were some subjects that language cannot accommodate. "I can't be sympathetic; these things simply make me furious," he wrote to Campbell, on hearing that her son had been killed in 1918 by the last shell from a German battery. "Oh, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN DAMN! And oh, dear, dear, dear, dear, dear, dearest!"

September 16, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/theater
/newsandfeatures/16shaw.html?pagewanted=4