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George Bernard Shaw
(b: 16 July 1856, Dublin, Ireland)
(d: 2 November 1950, Ayot St. Lawrence, England)
 George
Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and linguist, winner
of the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Leaving his home town of Dublin, Shaw moved to London
in the early 1870's to begin a career in literature. He wrote five
novels early in his life, none of which were accepted by publishers.
He wrote for the London Star newspaper
as a music critic for a few years.
Shaw had become interested and involved in politics
and had actually been the council representative in the St Pancras
district of London from 1887. He was a know socialist, taking a
leading role in the Fabian Society.
A few years later in 1985, Shaw was appointed drama
critic of the Sunday Review newspaper.
This was the stepping stone to his later career as a playwright.
His first successful play was Candida, written in 1898, after marrying
an Irish woman, Charlotte Payne-Townshend.
His list of plays include:
Comedies
- The Devil's Disciple (1897)
- Arms and the Man (1898)
- Mrs Warren's Profession (1898)
- Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1900)
- Caesar and Cleopatra (1901)
- Man and Superman (1902)
- Major Barbara (1905)
- Androcles and the Lion (1912)
- Pymalion (1913)
Dramas
- Heartbreak House (1919)
- Saint Joan (1923)
Many of Shaw's letters to friends have also been adapted
as plays by modern enthusiasts.
Shaw's most well-know passion was his concern about
the inconsistency of the English spelling system (cf. The
Problem With English Spelling) Shaw left £500 in his will
for a new phonetic alphabet to be created (cf. Shavian
Alphabet.)
Shaw died in 1950, aged 94, while pruning an apple
tree.
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