“Some men see things as they are and say ‘why?’; I dream things that never were and say ‘why not?’”

“The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.”

George Bernard Shaw - leading figure in 20th century theatre and freethinker - was born in Dublin on 26 July 1856. He was a man of many causes, among them, women's rights, equality of income, and equitable division of land; he supported radical change in the voting system, ending  censorship and subsidizing national theatre; he campaigned for the simplification of spelling, reform of the English alphabet and was a strong advocate for ‘healthy-living’. Shaw's skill as a platform speaker made him one of the most sought-after orators in England.  

Shaw was born into genteel poverty to an alcoholic father and a musically gifted mother. Largely self-taught, he finished his formal education at the age of 15 to start work as a junior clerk in a Dublin estate agency. Aged twenty, Shaw left for London to join his mother and sister. Over the next seven years, Shaw educated himself at the British Museum and wrote five unsuccessful novels. He found success in journalism and wrote on many social aspects of the day - his prolific output included writing music, drama, theatre and art reviews.

Shaw's first stage success was an American theatre run of The Devil's Disciple (1897). Other triumphs followed on the London stage: John Bull's Other Island (1904), Man and Superman (1905), Major Barbara (1905), The Doctor's Dilemma (1906) and Pygmalion (1914). Many of these plays are philosophical addresses about individual responsibility and freedom of spirit set against the conformist demands of society.

In 1884, Shaw joined the Fabian Society (a precursor to the modern Labour party) serving on its executive committee from 1885 to 1911. Fabians believed that capitalism was deeply flawed and resulted in an unjust and inefficient society. The Fabian Society produced pamphlets on a wide variety of different social issues many of which written by Shaw: in an 1887 pamphlet Shaw predicts 'gradualism' over revolution stating that socialism: “will come by prosaic instalments of public regulation and public administration.” In 1893, Shaw collaborated with Keir Hardie in writing the party program for the new Independent Labour party and in 1897 he entered local government. Shaw was also co-founder of the London School of Economics, he launched the petition against the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde and he opposed the execution of Roger Casement.

Shaw made a strong impression on many people: fellow Fabian, Beatrice Webb, noted in her diary that: “Bernard Shaw is a marvellously smart witty fellow...I have never known a man use his pen in such a workmanlike fashion or acquire such a thoroughly technical knowledge of any subject upon which he gives an opinion...Adored by many women, he is a born philanderer. A vegetarian, fastidious but unconventional in his clothes, six foot in height with a lithe, broad-chested figure and laughing blue eyes. Above all a brilliant talker, and, therefore, a delightful companion.” Children’s author and Fabian co-founder, Edith Nesbitt, wrote to a friend: “George Bernard Shaw has a fund of dry Irish humour that is simply irresistible. He is a clever writer and speaker - is the grossest flatterer I ever met, is horribly untrustworthy as he repeats everything he hears, and does not always stick to the truth, and is very plain like a long corpse with dead white face - sandy sleek hair, and a loathsome small straggly beard, and yet is one of the most fascinating men I ever met.”

In 1896 Shaw met Irish heiress and fellow Fabian, Charlotte Payne-Townshend. Very taken with Charlotte he wrote: “Instead of going to bed at ten, we go out and stroll about among the trees for a while. She, being also Irish, does not succumb to my arts as the unsuspecting and literal Englishwoman does; but we get on together all the better, repairing bicycles, talking philosophy and religion... or, when we are in a mischievous or sentimental humour, philandering shamelessly and outrageously.” In 1897 Charlotte proposed marriage. At first, Shaw rejected the idea, but after Charlotte nursed him through an illness they got married, settling in Hertfordshire, England.

Shaw also conducted a passionate correspondence over the years with the stage actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell: “I want my dark lady. I want my angel. I want my tempter. I want my Freia with her apples. I want the lighter of my seven lamps of beauty, honour, laughter, music, love, life and immortality. I want my inspiration, my folly, my happiness, my divinity, my madness, my selfishness, my final sanity and sanctification, my transfiguration, my purification, my light across the sea, my palm across the desert, my garden of lovely flowers, my million nameless joys, my day's wage, my night's dream, my darling and my star.” Mrs Campbell (for whom Shaw wrote the part of Eliza Dolittle in Pygmalion) suggested to Shaw that they should have a child so that it would inherit his brains and her beauty to which Shaw replied: “But have you considered that it might inherit my beauty and your brains?”

Shaw's popularity suffered a blow in 1914 when he suggested in his essay, Common Sense about the War, that soldiers might be wise to shoot their officers. He regained favour and acceptance in a revival of Arms and the Man (1919) and Saint Joan (1924). In 1925, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Reluctant to accept the honour, he did so at the behest of his wife while refusing the money. In 1938, he won an Oscar for Pygmalion (best screenplay) later the basis of the musical film, My Fair Lady (1956).

George Bernard Shaw continued to write into his nineties. On 2 November 1950 he fell while pruning an apple tree at his home. He died, aged 94, from problems exacerbated by the injuries he incurred. His estate and royalties are divided among the National Gallery of Ireland, the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.