The dude with the awesome beard, right?
The very same. Facial hair based achievements aside, the Irish playwright and literary critic wrote for 65 years, and became a titan of literary, public and political life along the way.
So what’s he most famous for?
He was a dedicated Socialist, and founding member of the both the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. Of more general interest, he never once slept with his wife in their entire 45 year marriage, but was still very keen on other men’s wives.
And the plays?
Were mostly just extensions of his political ideas. They were about class divisions, villainous landlords and the failure of government, all presented in a darkly comic way that made them a hit with London audiences.Sounds like a real radical.Exactly He opposed the First World War, and helped to found the New Statesmen and the London School of Economics. On the other hand, he believed eugenics should be used to create a race of superhumans that would one day rule the world. But his plays were very funny, so we normally just turn a blind eye to that.
Wow. Were his plays that good?
He was (until Al Gore) the only person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. He became extremely wealthy, and subsequently left a portion of his estate to the invention of a new phonetic alphabet, known today as Shavian.
Catch your interest? Be ‘Shaw’ to see these: Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Man and Superman, Major Barbara
