George Bernard Shaw facts for kids

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George Bernard Shaw
Shaw in 1936
Born (1856-07-26)26 July 1856
Dublin, Ireland
Died 2 November 1950(1950-11-02) (aged 94)
Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England
Occupation Playwright, critic, political activist
Nationality Irish
Alma mater Wesley College, Dublin
Genres Satire, black comedy
Literary movement Ibsenism, naturalism
Notable award(s)

Nobel Prize in Literature
1925

Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
1938 Pygmalion
Signature

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish writer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.

His best known works are his plays, some of which were made into movies. He wrote many plays about political problems, and those plays sometimes gave him enemies.

His play Saint Joan was made into a movie in 1957.

His play Pygmalion was made into a movie twice. The first Pygmalion movie won him an Academy Award for the best adapted screenplay, 1938. Later, the play was also made into a musical play called My Fair Lady. The movie based on that musical won 8 Academy Awards in 1964.

Shaw was the only person to win a Nobel Prize as well as an Academy Award.

Shaw also wrote musical criticism using the pseudonym (made-up name) Corno di Bassetto (which means: Basset horn).

In 1962, his play Androcles and the Lion was printed in a two-language version. On one side of the book, the text is written using regular English. On the other side, it is written using the Shaw alphabet.

Personal views

Shaw was a vegetarian, did not drink alcohol, and spoke strongly in favor of socialism and women's rights. He was also interested in making the English language easier to spell. In his will, he left money to be used to make a new alphabet. He wanted the new alphabet to have at least 40 letters, so that each sound could be spelled with just one letter.

Shaw delivered speeches supporting the idea of eugenics (selected breeding to improve the human race) and he became a noted figure in the movement in England. He sometimes exaggerated his arguments to an extreme to expose the cruelty that might come from this.

Images for kids

  • Exterior of modest city house

    Shaw's birthplace (2012 photograph). The plaque reads "Bernard Shaw, author of many plays, was born in this house, 26 July 1856".

  • young man with faint, wispy beard

    Shaw in 1879

  • Victorian photograph of man in early middle age, with centre-parted hair and a walrus moustache

    William Archer, colleague and benefactor of Shaw

  • Two elderly, bushily bearded, Victorian men

    William Morris (left) and John Ruskin: important influences on Shaw's aesthetic views

  • Man in early middle age, with full beard

    Shaw in 1894 at the time of Arms and the Man

  • Stage photograph showing actor as Julius Caesar and actress as Cleopatra in Egyptian setting

    Gertrude Elliott and Johnston Forbes-Robertson in Caesar and Cleopatra, New York, 1906

  • Man in late middle age, with full head of hair, full beard, and combative facial expression

    Shaw in 1914 aged 57

  • Cityscape of badly damaged large buildings

    Dublin city centre in ruins after the Easter Rising, April 1916

  • Garden hut in well-kept surroundings

    The movable hut in the garden of Shaw's Corner, Ayot St Lawrence, where Shaw wrote most of his works after 1906

  • View of modest-sized country house from extensive gardens

    Garden of Shaw's Corner

  • Middle-aged man with bushy beard

    Shaw in 1905

  • Caricature of middle-aged bearded man at his ease in an armchair

    "The strenuous literary life—George Bernard Shaw at work": 1904 caricature

  • Set of the complete plays of Shaw

    Set of the complete plays of Shaw


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