George Bernard Shaw

Biography

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish-born playwright, critic, and polemicist who became the most prominent English-language dramatist of his era. Born in Dublin to a downwardly mobile Protestant family, he moved to London at twenty and spent a decade in poverty before establishing himself as a music and theater critic. His socialism was central to his identity — he was a founding member of the Fabian Society and believed theater should instruct, not merely entertain. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1938 (for the Pygmalion film), making him the only person to win both. He died at 94, still writing, still arguing.

George Bernard Shaw at a glance