George Bernard Shaw
Irish playwright, critic and Fabian polemicist (1856–1950); wrote Pygmalion and Major Barbara; 1925 Nobel Prize.
At a glance
Main ideas
Plays as argument, Fabian gradualism, Charity and tainted money …
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Arms and the Man, Man and Superman, Major Barbara …
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- Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist who wrote more than sixty plays.
- Born in Dublin, he moved to London in 1876 and became a theatre and music critic.
- He joined the Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer, and used his plays and their prefaces to spread his political, social and religious ideas.
- His views were often contentious: he promoted eugenics, opposed vaccination, and later praised dictators including Mussolini and Stalin.
Why it matters
- He became the leading dramatist of his generation and is regularly rated second only to Shakespeare among British dramatists; the word "Shavian" names his ideas and style.
Key facts
- Born
- 26 Jul 1856, 3 Upper Synge Street, Portobello, Dublin1
- Died
- 2 Nov 1950, aged 94, of renal failure after a fall while pruning a tree1
- Married
- Charlotte Payne-Townshend, 1 Jun 18981
- Home
- Shaw's Corner, Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, from 19061
- Critic
- Theatre critic for The Saturday Review from 1895 to 18981
- Honours
- Nobel Prize in Literature (1925); Academy Award for the screenplay of Pygmalion (1938); refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 19461
Main ideas
-
Plays as argument1
His views were set out above all in the prefaces to his plays.
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Fabian gradualism1
He was the Fabian Society's most prominent pamphleteer; by the late 1920s he had largely renounced its gradualism.
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Charity and tainted money2
In the preface to Major Barbara he argued that money helping the poor does good whatever its source.
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Housing over vaccination1
He called smallpox vaccination a cheap substitute for decent housing for the poor.
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Spelling reform1
He left money in his will to reform the English alphabet into a phonetic one of forty letters.
Books to start with
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Connections
Writes
Links
Sources
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