George Bernard Shaw facts for kids

George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
	Shaw in 1936
Born	26 July 1856; Dublin, Ireland
Died	2 November 1950 (aged 94); Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England
Occupation	Playwright, critic, political activist
Nationality	Irish
Alma mater	Wesley College, Dublin
Genre	Satire, black comedy
Literary movement	Ibsenism, naturalism
Notable awards	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 first person to win both a Nobel Prize and 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

Shaw's birthplace (2012 photograph). The plaque reads "Bernard Shaw, author of many plays, was born in this house, 26 July 1856".
Shaw in 1879
William Archer, colleague and benefactor of Shaw
William Morris (left) and John Ruskin: important influences on Shaw's aesthetic views
Shaw in 1894 at the time of Arms and the Man
Gertrude Elliott and Johnston Forbes-Robertson in Caesar and Cleopatra, New York, 1906
Shaw in 1914, aged 57
Dublin city centre in ruins after the Easter Rising, April 1916
The rotating hut in the garden of Shaw's Corner, Ayot St Lawrence, where Shaw wrote most of his works after 1906
Garden of Shaw's Corner
"The strenuous literary life—George Bernard Shaw at work": 1904 caricature by Max Beerbohm
Shaw in 1905
Shaw's complete plays
Bust by Jacob Epstein