Shaw, George Bernard

Born: 1856 AD
Died: 1950 AD, at 94 years of age.
Nationality: Irish


Shaw, George Bernard

1856 – He was born on the 26th day of July this year in Dublin, Ireland. He was a strong advocate for socialism and women's rights, a vegetarian and teetotaler, and a harsh critic of formal education.

1876 – He joined his mother’s London household. She, Vandeleur Lee, and his sister Lucy, provided him with a pound a week while he frequented public libraries and the British Museum reading room where he studied earnestly and began writing professionally.

1879 – From this year until 1883, due to a series of rejected novels, his literary earnings remained negligible.

1881 – He became a vegetarian while he was twenty-five, after hearing a lecture by H. F. Lester.

1885 - As music, art and drama critic he wrote under the pseudonym "Corno di Bassetto" (Basset Horn) for the Wolver Hampton Star and, as GBS, for Dramatic Review.

1897 – His first significant financial success as a playwright came from Richard Mansfield's American production of The Devil's Disciple.

1898 – He met Charlotte Payne-Townsend, an Irish heiress and fellow Fabian; they married in this year. In addition, this year, he was also the drama critic for Frank Harris’ Saturday Review. His income as a critic made him self-supporting.

1904 – From this year until 1907, several of his plays had their London premieres in notable productions at the Court Theatre, managed by Harley Granville-Barker and J.E. Vedrenne.

1906 – He and his wife moved into a house in Ayot St Lawrence, a small village in Hertfordshire; it was to be their home for the remainder of their lives, although they also maintained a flat in London.

1925 – He was famous as a playwright, he wrote more than sixty plays. He was uniquely honored by being awarded for a Nobel Prize in this year.

1931 – His novel “Immaturity” was published this year in London, Constable. His first novel written in 1879, it was the last one to be printed.

1938 – He was awarded in Oscar for Pygmalion this year.

1946 - His last full-length work was Buoyant Billions.

1950 – He died at age 94, on the 2nd day of November this year in Hertfordshire, England.

1971 - His home, now called Shaw's Corner, in the small village of Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire is now a National Trust property, open to the public. The Shaw Theatre, Euston Road, London, opened in this year, was named in his honor.


Famous Quotes from Shaw, George Bernard

• "You have set up in New York Harbor a monstrous idol which you call Liberty. The only thing that remains to complete that monument is to put on its pedestal the inscription written by Dante on the gate of hell:"All hope abandon ye who enter here."
  


• "If I wanted any shit from you, I'd scrape it off your dick!"
  


• "And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand."
  


• "It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind."
  


• "You see things as they are and ask,'Why?'I dream things as they never were and ask,'Why not?'"