George Bernard Shaw – Author Biography
Early Life
George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland, to a struggling grain merchant and a singer. Largely self-educated after leaving school at fifteen, he moved to London in 1876, where he spent years in the British Museum reading room educating himself while writing unsuccessful novels.
Career
Shaw first made his name as a music and drama critic, writing brilliantly combative reviews. In the 1890s he turned to playwriting, producing Arms and the Man, Candida, Man and Superman, and Major Barbara. His masterpiece, Pygmalion (1913), about a phonetics professor transforming a Cockney flower girl, became the basis for the musical My Fair Lady. Saint Joan (1923) is considered his greatest play. In 1925 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 1938 he won an Academy Award for the screenplay of Pygmalion, making him one of very few to win both honors. A committed Fabian socialist, he wrote voluminous prefaces, pamphlets, and letters. He died on November 2, 1950, in Ayot St Lawrence, England.
Major Works
His major plays include Arms and the Man, Candida, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, and Saint Joan. His long prefaces are themselves major works of social criticism.
Writing Style and Themes
Shaw wrote plays of ideas, witty, argumentative dramas in which characters debate philosophy, politics, and morality. His dialogue is dazzling and didactic, designed to provoke rather than merely entertain. His recurring themes are class hypocrisy, the irrationality of romantic love, the critique of capitalism and militarism, and the figure of the unconventional woman. He used comedy as a weapon, insisting that laughter was the best vehicle for uncomfortable truths.
Legacy
Shaw is, with Shakespeare, one of the two towering figures of English-language drama. His plays remain in constant production worldwide, and his aphorisms saturate the language. His combination of artistic brilliance and public intellectualism made him the model of the engaged writer, and his Fabian socialism influenced British political thought for generations.
