George Bernard Shaw

By: Ebony Brown

Who he was

• He was an Irish playwright .• He was a cofounder of the London School of

Economics.

Early years and family

• George Bernard Shaw was born in Synge Street, Dublin in 1856 to George Carr Shaw.

• He had two sisters, Lucinda Frances, and Elinor Agnes

Education

• Shaw briefly attended the Wesley College, Dublin, a grammar school operated by the Methodist Church in Ireland.

• Later, he painstakingly detailed the reasons for his aversion to formal education in his Treatise on Parents and Children.

His personal life and political activism

• He became a dedicated Socialist and a charter member of the Fabian Society, a middle class organization established in 1884 to promote the gradual spread of socialism by peaceful means.

Final years

• During his later years, Shaw enjoyed attending to the grounds at Shaw's Corner.

• He died at the age of 94, of renal failure precipitated by injuries incurred by falling while pruning a tree.

Novels

• Shaw wrote five unsuccessful novels at the start of his career between 1879 and 1883. Eventually all were published.

• The first to be printed was Cashel Byron's Profession (1886 ), which was written in 1882.

Plays

• The texts of plays by Shaw mentioned in this section, with the dates when they were written and first performed can be found in Complete Plays and Prefaces.

• haw began working on his first play destined for production, Widowers Houses, in 1885 in collaboration with critic William Archer, who supplied the structure.