Irish dramatist, literary critic, a socialist
spokesman, and a leading
figure in the 20th century theater. Shaw was
a freethinker, defender of
women's rights, and advocate of equality
of income. In 1925 he was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Shaw
accepted the honor but
refused the money. (Nobel made his money manufacturing guns, dynamite.)
"Just as the historian can teach no real history
until he has cured his
readers of the romantic delusion that the greatness
of a queen consists
in her being a pretty woman and having her head
cut off, so the
playwright of the first order can do nothing
with his audience until he
has cured them of looking at the stage through
the keyhole, and sniffing
round the theatre as prurient people sniff round
the divorce court."
(from G.B. Shaw's preface in Three Plays by Brieux,
1911)
George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, where
he grew up in something
close to genteel poverty. "I am a typical Irishman;
my family came from
Yorkshire," Shaw once said. His father, George
Carr Shaw, was in the
wholesale grain trade. Lucinda Elisabeth (Gurly)
Shaw, his mother, was
the daughter of an impoverished landowner. She
was 16-years younger than
her husband. George Carr was a drunkard - his
example prompted his son
to become a teetotaller. When he died in 1885,
his children and wife did
not attend his funeral. Young Shaw and his
two sisters were brought up
mostly by servants. Shaw's mother eventually
left the family home to
teach music, singing, in London. When
she died in 1913, Shaw confessed
to Mrs. Patrick Campbell: "I must write to you
about it, because there
is no one else who didn't hate her mother, and
even who doesn't hate her
children." (??) UNCLEAR WHAT HE MEANS.
In 1866 the family moved to a better neighborhood.
Shaw went to the
Wesleyan Connexional School, then moved to a
private school near Dalkey,
and from there to Dublin's Central Model School.
Shaw finished his
formal education at the Dublin English Scientific
and Commercial Day
School. At the age of 15, he started to work
as a junior clerk. In 1876
he went to London, joining his sister and mother.
Shaw did not return to
Ireland for nearly thirty years.
Most of the next two years Shaw educated himself
at the British Museum.
He began his literary career by writing music
and drama criticism, and
novels, including the semi-autobiographical IMMATURITY,
without much
success. A vegetarian, who eschewed alcohol and
tobacco, Shaw joined in
1884 the Fabian Society, served on its executive
committee from 1885 to
1911. The middle-class socialist group attracted
also H.G. Wells - the
both writers send each other copies of their
new books as they appeared.
"You are, now that Wilde is dead, the one living
playwright in my
esteem," wrote Wells after receiving Shaw's THREE
PLAYS FOR PURITANS
(1901).
A man of many causes, Shaw supported abolition
of private property,
radical change in the voting system, campaigned
for the simplification
of spelling, and the reform of the English alphabet.
As a public
speaker, Shaw gained the status of one of the
most sought-after orators
in England. In 1895 Shaw became a drama critic
for the Saturday Review.
Articles written for the paper were later collected
in OUR THEATRES IN
THE NINETIES (1932). Music, art, and drama criticism
Shaw wrote for
Dramatic Review (1885-86), Our Corner (1885-86),
The Pall Mall Gazette
(1885-88), The World (1886-94), and The Star
(1888-90) as 'Corno bi
Basetto'. His music criticism were collected
in SHAW'S MUSIC (1981).
After lacing a shoe too tightly, an operation
was performed on his foot
for necrosis; Shaw was unable to put his foot
on the ground for eighteen
months. During this period he wrote CAESAR AND
CLEOPATRA (1901) and THE
PERFECT WAGNERITE (1898). "...I have no reason
to believe that they
would have been a bit better if they had been
written on two legs
instead of one," he said in a letter to the playwright
St John Ervine.
His friend had his leg amputated during WWI after
being hit by a shell
splinters.
In 1898 Shaw married the wealthy Charlotte
Payne-Townshend. They
settled in 1906 in the Hertfordshire village
of Ayot St. Lawrence. Shaw remained
with Charlotte until her death, although he was
occasionally linked with
other women.
He carried on a passionate correspondence over
the years
with Mrs. Patrick Campbell, a widow and actress,
who got the starring
role in PYGMALION. All the other actresses refused
to say the taboo word
'bloody' that the playwright had put in the mouth
of Eliza. When she
wanted to publish his love letters to her, Shaw
answered: "I will not,
dear Stella, at my time of life, play the horse
to your Lady Godiva."
The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen had a great
influence on Shaw's
thinking. For a summer meeting of the Fabian
Society in 1890, he wrote
THE QUINTESSENCE OF IBSENISM (1891), in which
he considered Ibsen a
pioneer, "who declares that it is right to do
something hitherto
regarded as infamous." Shaw's early plays, WIDOWER'S
HOUSES (1892),
which criticized slum landlords, as well as several
subsequent ones,
were not well received. His 'unpleasant plays',
ideological attacks on
the evils of capitalism and explorations of moral
and social problems,
were followed with more entertaining but as principled
productions. "To
a professional critic (I have been one myself)
theatre-going is the
curse of Adam. The play is the evil he is paid
to endure in the sweat of
his brow; and the sooner it is over, the better."
(from 'Preface' to
Saint Joan) . CANDIDA was a comedy about the
wife of a clergyman, and
what happens when a weak, young poet wants to
rescue her from her dull
family life. But it was not until JOHN BULL'S
OTHER ISLAND (1904) that
Shaw gained in England a wider popularity with
his own plays. In the
Unites States and Germany Shaw's name was already
well-known. Between
1904 and 1907 The Royal Court Theatre staged
several of his plays,
including Candida.
MORELL: Man can climb to the highest summits;
but he cannot dwell there.
MARCHBACKS (springing up): It's false: there
can he dwell for ever, and
there only. It's in the other moment that he
can find no rest, no sense
of the silent glory of life. Where would you
have spend my moments, if
not on the summits? MORELL: In the scullery,
slicing onions and filling
lamps. (from Candida)
MAJOR BARBARA depicted an officer of the Salvation
Army, who learns from
her father, a manufacturer of armaments, that
money and power can be
better weapons against evil than love. Ironically
the producer of the
film version of the play, Gabriel Pascal, was
eager to do business with
Sir Basil Zaharoff, an arms dealer.
PICKERING: Have you no morals, man?
DOOLITTLE: Can't afford them, Governor.
(from Pygmalion)
Pygmalion was originally written for the actress
Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
Later the play became the basis for two films
and a musical. (Shaw's
correspondence with the actresses Ellen Terry
and Stella Campbell are
available in book form.) 
Shaw's popularity declined after his essay 'Common
Sense About the War'
(1914), which was considered unpatriotic.
With SAINT JOAN (1924), his masterpiece, Shaw
was again accepted by the
post-war public. Now he was regarded as 'a second
Shakespeare', who had
revolutionized the British theatre. Shaw did
not portrait Joan of Arc,
his protagonist, as a heroine or martyr, but
as a stubborn young woman.
And as in classic tragedies, her flaw is fatal
and brings about her
downfall. Uncommonly Shaw showed some sympathy
to her judges. The play
was written four years after Joan was declared
a saint.
In 1893 Shaw collaborated with Keir Hardie in
writing the party program
for the new Independent Labour party. Many of
his playes also were
philosophical addresses on the subject of individual
responsibility or
freedom of spirit against the conformist demands
of society. Shaw was
cofounder with the Webbs of the London School
of Economics, and launched
the petition against the imprisonment of Oscar
Wilde. In 1897 he entered
local government.
In his plays Shaw combined contemporary moral
problems with ironic tone
and paradoxes, "Shavian" wit, which have produced
such phrases as "He
who can, does. He who cannot, teaches", "England
and America are two
countries divided by a common language", "Christianity
might be a good
thing if anyone ever tried it", and "I never
resist temptation because I
have found that things are bad for me do not
tempt me." Discussion and
intellectual acrobatics are the basis of his
drama, and before the
emergence of the sound film, his plays were nearly
impossible to adapt
into screen. During his long career, Shaw wrote
over 50 plays. He
continued to write them even in his 90s. George
Bernard Shaw died at
Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, on November
2, 1950. He was cremated
and it was his wish that his ashes be mixed with
those of his wife,
Charlotte - she had died seven years before,
"an old woman bowed and
crippled, furrowed and wrinkled," as Shaw
depicted her in a letter to
H.G. Wells.
Since the days of the silent films, Shaw had been
a fan of
motion-picture. He also played in the film Rosy
Rapture - The Pride of
the Beauty (1914). Shaw did not like much of
the German film version of
Pygmalion (1935), and the penniless producer
and director Gabriel Pascal
persuaded the author to give him the rights
to make films from his
plays. "Mr Pascal, you're the first honest film
producer I have ever
met," Shaw told him at their first meeting and
gave him a pound note.
Pygmalion, produced by Pascal and directed
by Anthony Asquith and David
Lean (uncredited), was a great success.
In one article, Pascal was
picked with the Pope and Hitler as one of the
ten most famous men of
1938, but his career ended in the financial fiasco
of the spectacle
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Among several other
films inspired by
Shaw's plays are Saint Joan (1927), How He Lied
to Her Husband (1931),
Arms and the Man (1932), Major Barbara (1941),
and My Fair Lady (1964).
Pascal's co-director in Major Barbara was David
Lean, but for thousand
pounds Lean agreed to give the full credit to
Pascal.
For further reading: Bernard Shaw by G.K. Chesterton
(1909); Bernard
Shaw by H.Pearson (1942); Bernard Shaw by E.
Bentley (1957); Bernard
Shaw: Man and Writer by A. Williamson (1963);
A Guide to the Plays of
Bernard Shaw by C.B. Purdom (1963); Bermard Shaw
by E.R. Bentley (1967);
Concordance to the Plays and Prefaces of Bernard
Shaw by E.D. Bevan
(1971, 10 vols.); Bernard Shaw: Art and Socialism
by E. Strauss (1978);
The Genius of Shaw, ed. M. Holroyd (1979); Bernard
Shaw: The Darker Side
by A. Silver (1982); Bernard Shaw: A Guide to
Research by S. Weintraub
(1992); Bernard Shaw: The Ascent of the Superman
by Sally Peters (1996);
Shaw by M. Holroyd (1988-93, 4 vols., authorized
biography) - Suom.:
Suomeksi julkaistu myös Järjen sanoja
sodasta.
Selected works:
IMMATURITY, 1879 THE IRRATIONAL KNOT, 1880 LOVE
AMONG ARTIST, 1881 OUR
CORNER; CASHEL BYRON'S PROFESSION, 1882 AN UNSOCIAL
SOCIALIST, 1883
FABIAN ESSAYS ON SOCIALISM, 1889 THE QUINTESSENCE
OF IBSENISM, 1891 (-
see Henrik Ibsen) WIDOWER'S HOUSES, 1892 ARMS
AND THE MAN, 1894 -
Sankareita - film 1932, dir. by Cecil Lewis,
starring Barry Jones, Anne
Grey, Angela Baddeley CASHEL BYRON'S PROFESSION,
1885 - Herra Byronin
ammatti CANDIDA, 1987 - suomentajina mm. Helmi
Setälä, Helvi Erjakka THE
MAN OF DESTINY, 1897 - Kohtalon mies THE DEVIL'S
DISCIPLE, 1897 - Pirun
oppipoika - film 1959, dir. by Guy Hamilton,
starring Burt Lancaster,
Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Eva Le Gallienne
THE PERFECT WAGNERITE,
1898 PLAYS PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT, 1898 THE
PHILANDER, 1898 YOU NEVER
CAN TELL, 1899 FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE, 1900
CAPTAIN BRASSBOUND'S
CONVERSION, 1900 - Kapteeni Brassboundin kääntymys
CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA,
1901 - Caesar ja Cleopatra - film 1945, dir.
by Gabriel Pascal, starring
Claude Rains, Vivien Leigh, Cecil Parker, Stewart
Granger THREE PLAYS
FOR PURITANS, 1901 MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION,
1902 - Rouva Warrenin
ammatti JOHN BULL'S OTHER ISLAND, 1904 (stage
play 1907) THE COMMON
SENSE OF MUNICIPAL TRADING, 1904 MAN AND SUPERMAN,
1905 ON GOING TO
CHURCH, 1905 MAJOR BARBARA, 1905 - Majuri Barbara
- film 1941, dir. by
Gabriel Pascal, starring Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison,
Robert Morley,
Robert Newton, Marie Lohr, Deborah Kerr DOCTOR'S
DILEMMA, 1906 - Lääkäri
pulassa - film 1958, dir. by Anthony Asquith,
starring Leslie Caron,
Dirk Bogarde, John Robinson DRAMATIC OPINIONS
AND ESSAYS, 1906 GETTING
MARRIED, 1908 MISALLIANCE, 1910 SOCIALISM AND
SUPERIOR BRAINS, 1910
FANNY'S FIRST PLAY, 1911 - Fannyn ensi-ilta OVERRULED,
1912 ANDROCLES
AND THE LION, 1912 - Androkles ja leijona GREAT
CATHERINE, 1913 - Suuri
Katariina PYGMALION, 1913 - suom. - film 1935,
dir. by Erich Engel; film
1938, dir. by Anthony Asquith, starring Leslie
Howard, Wendy Hiller,
Wilfrid Lawson, Scott Sunderland; My Fair La
dy in 1964, dir. by Ceorge
Cukor, starring Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn,
Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid
Hyde White PEACE CONFERENCE HINTS, 1919 HEARTBREAK
HOUSE, 1920 -
Särkyneiden sydänten talo BACK TO METUSELAH,
1922 SAINT JOAN, 1923 -
Pyhä Johanna (trans. by Matti Norri) - film
1957, dir. by Otto
Preminger, starring Jean Seberg, Anton Walbrook,
Richard Widmark - movie
version utilized a screen version by Graham Greene
- "I always wanted to
make a picture of it. Perhaps that was the great
mistake: I loved the
play so much that I didn't analyze it. I realized
only later that the
play is actually a very intellectual, analytical
rendition of the story
of Saint Joan. It's not a emotional story, and
it just wasn't moving
enough to get the masses to follow. Even the
play, as I found out later,
was never a big popular success." (Otto Preminger
in Who the Devil Made
It by Peter Bogdanovich, 1997)
IMPRISONMENT, 1925 THE SOCIALISM OF SHAW,
1926 THE INTELLIGENT WOMAN'S GUIDE TO SOCIALISM
AND CAPITALISM,
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/index.htm
Read some of the scintillating, delightful text from the "INTELLIGENT
WOMAN'S GUIDE TO SOCIALISM"
fabulous witty book. A lifelong prosletyzer for liberal, progressive
economic methods proposed by socialists in UK.
Who explains the philosophy beautifully here. If he were alive today
he'd say 'have GOV take over the banksters' banks, run them ...not give
those thieves any more money. STOP all agricultural subsidies. NO more
cash giveaways to friends of the politicos, which subsidizing is. Let everyone
trade freely with every nation, no more colonial despots owning slave countries.He
says that the reason Germany went bezerk, the MAIN THIRD WORLD near them
at turn of century was AFRICA. France and ENGLAND cut up that pie. They
could sell products there, and take resources from it. Germany could not.
GBS took back a lot of his praise and friendship for Germany after the
Concentration camps were torn down. though. He wasn't dumb or stubborn!
1928 THE APPLE CART, 1929 - Amerikan keisari BERNARD
SHAW AND KARL MARX, 1930
WHAT I REALLY WROTE ABOUT THE WAR, 1931 screenplay
(with Frank Launder):
HOW HE LIED TO HER HUSBAND, 1931 - film dir.
by Cecil Lewis DOCTOR'S
DELUSIONS, CRUDE CRIMINOLOGY, AND SHAM EDUCATION,
1932 ESSAYS IN FABIAN
SOCIALISM, 1932 THE WORKS OF BERNARD SHAW, 1930-32
(30 vols., revised as
Ayot St. Lawrence Edition, 1931-32; Standard
Edition, 36 vols., 1947-52)
MAJOR CRITICAL ESSAYS, 1932 TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD,
1932 OUR THEATRES IN
THE NINETIES, 1932 MUSIC IN LONDON, 1890-94,
1932 AMERICAN BOOBS, 1933
PREFACES, 1934 VILLAGE WOOING, 1934 THE SIMPLETON
OF THE UNEXPECTED
ISLES, 1935 WILLIAM MORRIS AS I KNEW HIM, 1936
THE MILLIONAIRESS, 1936 -
Miljoonaperijätär - film 1961, dir.
by Anthony Asquith, starring Sophia
Loren, Peter Sellers, Alistari Sim, Vittorio
de Sica LONDON MUSIC IN
1888-1889, 1937 "IN GOOD KING CHARLES'S GOLDEN
DAYS", 1939 EVERYBODY'S
POLITICAL WHAT'S WHAT, 1944 SIXTEEN SELF-SKETCHES,
1948 BUOYANT
BILLIONS, 1948 (perf. and pub. Zurich) FARFETCHED
FABLES, 1950 PLAYS AND
PLAYERS, 1952 SELECTED PROSE, 1953 SHAW ON MUSIC,
1955 THE ILLUSIONS OF
SOCIALISM, 1956 SHAW ON THE THEATRE, 1958 AN
UNFINISHED NOVEL, 1958
SHAW'S DRAMATIC CRITICISM: 1895-1898, 1959 HOW
TO BECOME A MUSICAL
CRITIC, 1960 PLATFORM AND PULPIT, 1961 SHAW ON
SHAKESPEARE, 1961 (ed. by
E. Wilson) THE MATTER WITH IRELAND, 1962 G.B.S.
ON MUSIC, 1962 RELIGIOUS
SPEECHES, 1963 HEARTBREAK HOUSE, 1964 THE COMPLETE
PREFACES OF BERNARD
SHAW, 1965 SHAW ON RELIGION, 1967 SHAW: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY,
1969-70 (2
vols.) THE ROAD TO EQUALITY, 1971 COLLECTED MUSIC
CRITICISM, 1973
BERNARD SHAW'S PRACTICAL POLITICS, 1976 THE PORTABLE
BERNARD SHAW, 1977
THE GREAT COMPOSERS, 1978 THE COLLECTED SCREENPLAYS
OF BERNARD SHAW,
1980 EARLY TEXTS, 1981 (12 vols.) SHAW'S MUSIC,
1981 (3 vols.) SHAW ON
DICKENS, 1984 AGITATIONS, 1985 THE DIARIES, 1885-1897,
1985 SELECTED
SHORTER PLAYS, 1987 COLLECTED LETTERS, 1965-88
(4 vols.) BERNARD SHAW'S
BOOK REVIEWS, 1991 THE COMPLETE PREFACES, 1993
THE DRAMA OBSERVED, 1993
UNPUBLISHED SHAW, 1996 and read COLIN WILSON'S BIO ON SHAW.
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