Who is George Bernard Shaw?

George Bernard Shaw is Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist.

How did George Bernard Shaw die?

George Bernard Shaw passed away in 1950 (kidney failure).

What is George Bernard Shaw known for?

George Bernard Shaw is primarily known as a(n) literary critic, theatre critic, essayist, photographer, politician, playwright, screenwriter, linguist, pacifist, Nobel Prize winner, socialist, biographer, music critic, writer, prose writer.

George Bernard Shaw

Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist

Born:July 26, 1856

Died:November 2, 1950

Age at death:94

Manner of death:Accidental Death

Cause of death:Kidney Failure

Zodiac Sign:Leo

Born in:Dublin, Ireland

Buried in:United Kingdom

Languages:English

Playwright Literary Critic Theatre Critic Essayist Photographer Politician Screenwriter Linguist Pacifist Nobel Prize Winner Socialist Biographer Music Critic Writer Prose Writer

Signature

Links

Wikipedia IMDb

Famous For

Notable Work

PygmalionSaint JoanMrs. Warren's ProfessionCaesar and Cleopatra

Movies & TV

Melody of the World

Books

PygmalionSaint JoanArms and the ManMrs. Warren's ProfessionCaesar and Cleopatra

Awards

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (1939)Nobel Prize in Literature (1925)Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

George Bernard Shaw

Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist

Biography

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876; he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist group known as the Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma, and Caesar and Cleopatra. Shaw's expressed views were often contentious; he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable, and although not a republican, castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period. These stances had no lasting effect on his standing or productivity as a dramatist; the inter-war years saw a series of often ambitious plays, which achieved varying degrees of popular success. In 1938 he provided the screenplay for a filmed version of Pygmalion, for which he received an Academy Award. His appetite for politics and controversy remained undiminished; by the late 1920s, he had largely renounced Fabian Society gradualism, and often wrote and spoke favourably of dictatorships of the right and left—he expressed admiration for both Mussolini and Stalin. In the final decade of his life, he made fewer public statements but continued to write prolifically until shortly before his death, aged 94, having refused all state honours, including the Order of Merit in 1946. Since Shaw's death, scholarly and critical opinion about his works has varied, but he has regularly been rated among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare; analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of English-language playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw's ideas and his means of expressing them.

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “George Bernard Shaw”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it...”

— In The World (15 November 1893)

“Pasteboard pies and paper flowers are being banished from the stage by the growth of that power of accurate observation which is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it...”

— In The World (18 July 1894), Music in London 1890-1894: Being Criticisms Contributed Week by Week to The World (New York: Vienna House, 1973)

“No public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means; and I have no reason to hope that Mr Coote may be an exception to the rule.”

— "The Living Pictures", The Saturday Review, LXXIX (April 6, 1895), 443; reprinted in Our Theatres in the Nineties (1932). Vol. 1. London: Constable & Co. 79-86

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "George Bernard Shaw", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

George Bernard Shaw

Sujet : Barker, Herbert Atkinson (1869-1950) -- Portraits Shaw, Bernard (1856-1950) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Rol, 153793 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : Pho20Rol Image de presse Couverture : .. avril 1931 Langue : français

Sujet : Barker, Herbert Atkinson (1869-1950) -- Portraits Shaw, Bernard (1856-1950) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Rol, 153796 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : Pho20Rol Image de presse Couverture : .. avril 1931 Langue : français

Sujet : Barker, Herbert Atkinson (1869-1950) -- Portraits Shaw, Bernard (1856-1950) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Rol, 153794 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : Pho20Rol Image de presse Couverture : .. avril 1931 Langue : français

Sujet : Barker, Herbert Atkinson (1869-1950) -- Portraits Shaw, Bernard (1856-1950) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Rol, 153790 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : Pho20Rol Image de presse Couverture : .. avril 1931 Langue : français

Sujet : Barker, Herbert Atkinson (1869-1950) -- Portraits Shaw, Bernard (1856-1950) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Rol, 153792 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : Pho20Rol Image de presse Couverture : .. avril 1931 Langue : français

Sujet : Barker, Herbert Atkinson (1869-1950) -- Portraits Shaw, Bernard (1856-1950) -- Portraits Portraits collectifs -- 1914-1945 Référence bibliographique : Rol, 153791 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : Pho20Rol Image de presse Couverture : .. avril 1931 Langue : français

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. He was most angered by what he perceived as the exploitation of the working class. An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles. For a short time he was active in local politics, serving on the London County Council. The Irish Tourist Board will not like me saying this, but anti-social behavior has become a problem in Dublin and works of public art now need protection from vandals and metal thieves. In St. Patrick's park there is the Literary Parade of Irish Writers which was crafted by Colm Brennan and John Coll and commissioned in 1988 by Irish Distillers to commemorate the Dublin Millennium in 1988. The plaques featuring sculptured heads are set into the arched alcoves of the red-bricked east wall of the park. Unfortunately, it is not easy to photographs them as they are now protected by metal railings. The twelve oval plaques feature Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, James Joyce, Sean O’Casey, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, John Millington Synge, Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, Eilish Dillon, James Clarence Mangan and Austin Clarke.

Sujet : Shaw, Bernard (1856-1950) -- Portraits Référence bibliographique : Mondial, 782 Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : Pho20MPP Image de presse Couverture : .. février 1932 Langue : français Éditeur : diff. par l'Agence Mondial (Paris)