George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright who wrote more than 60 plays during his lifetime. He was born on July 26, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. He was the third and the youngest child. His early education was done in tutoring sessions provided by his clerical uncle.
As a child, he paid regular visits to the National Gallery of Ireland. He moved to London in 1876 and started his struggle to become a writer. During this period he spent most of his time in the British Museum reading room. His literary career started with the novel ‘Immaturity’.
Quick Facts: –
- He did not like ‘George’ in his name and insisted that people call him just Bernard Shaw.
- His first plays were published in volumes titled “Plays Unpleasant”.
- In 1884, he joined the Fabian Society. It was a middle-class socialist group that aimed at the transformation of English Society.
- Shaw wrote a total of five novels during 1876 to 1884.
- In 1925, George Bernard Shaw won the Nobel Prize in literature. He was 68 years old at that time.
- From 1892 to 1947, he wrote drama. He completed Buoyant Billions at the age of 91 years.
- In 1898, he married a wealthy woman from an upper-class background Charlotte Payne-Townshend.
- George Bernard Shaw was a freethinker and advocated women’s rights and equality on income.
- He is the only person to have won both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar.
- He passed away on November 2nd, 1950 at the age of 94.
