George Bernard Shaw

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Standard Name: Shaw, George Bernard
Used Form: G. B. Shaw
GBS was a drama critic who called for reform of theatrical practice, and a dramatist who attached to his plays on publication, lengthy prefaces expounding the social and dramatic issues opened by the play itself. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls him a polemicist, and says that much of the drama of his time and after was indirectly in his debt for his creation of a drama of moral passion and of intellectual conflict and debate.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Literary responses Ethel Wilson
Negative reviews seemed to repeat Macmillan 's original worry that the collection was half-cooked. Aunt Topaz was characterized by the Canadian Forum as a terrible bore, whom the reviewer found almost as tiresome to...
Residence Amabel Williams-Ellis
Until a fire destroyed it in December 1951, the Williams-Ellises lived mainly at his family home, Plâs Brondanw in Portmeirion, North Wales, the village which Clough was recreating in the Italianate style. Guests at...
Friends, Associates Amabel Williams-Ellis
Her political activities kept AWE at the centre of London's socially-conscious literary circles. Guests at The Well of Loneliness tea-party included Virginia Woolf , Rose Macaulay , Vita Sackville-West , G. B. Shaw , and...
Literary responses Oscar Wilde
Shaw 's review for The Saturday Review welcomed its modern note.
Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde. Knopf.
428-9
Family and Intimate relationships Anna Wickham
In 1905 Edith Harper met Patrick Hepburn , a lawyer and amateur astronomer who made significant discoveries about the rings of Saturn.
Hepburn, James et al. “Anna Wickham: A Memoir”. The Writings of Anna Wickham, Free Woman and Poet, edited by Reginald Donald Smith, Virago Press, pp. 1-48.
22
Wickham, Anna. “Introduction”. Selected Poems, edited by David Garnett, Chatto and Windus, pp. 7-11.
8-9
They were introduced by Edith's then-fiancé, William Ray , a freelance...
Family and Intimate relationships Fay Weldon
During her marriage she and Edgar entertained the literary and avant-garde world: she later regaled her grand-daughter with irreverent stories of Joseph Conrad , Jean Rhys (Such a louche young woman),
Weldon, Fay. Auto da Fay. Flamingo.
102
Ford Madox Ford
Friends, Associates Beatrice Webb
Their closest friends were statesman R. B. Haldane , Labour leader Arthur Henderson , Liberal politician Herbert Samuel , G. B. Shaw , and political psychologist Graham Wallas , the last two both Fabians. They...
death Beatrice Webb
Her body was cremated and buried at Passfield Corner, until at Bernard Shaw 's somewhat incongruous suggestion, the ashes of both Webbs were re-buried together in Politicians' Corner, Westminster Abbey, on 12 December 1947...
Textual Production Beatrice Webb
They had published a kind of trial run for this work in 1903, entitled The History of Liquor Licensing in England, principally from 1700 to 1830. For the later and larger book, the...
Textual Production Evelyn Waugh
EW embarked on travel writing with Labels: A Mediterranean Journal, 1930, which sets out in breezy letter-writing style to record comfortable travel (around the Middle East and North Africa as well as southern Europe...
Friends, Associates Rosamund Marriott Watson
She forged friendships with other women writers, including Mona Caird , E. Nesbit , Mathilde Blind , Amy Levy , and Alice Meynell . She was also a friend of William Sharp , Austin Dobson
Friends, Associates Helen Waddell
Friends from HW 's time at Somerville included Maude Clarke , whom she had known as a child and whose Oxford position had been one of the incentives to go there, and archaelogist Helen Lorimer
Occupation Helen Waddell
Meanwhile, because members of Constable 's were serving in the armed forces, HW went back to work in publishing. She became assistant editor of the Conservative monthly the Nineteenth Century and After (published by Constable)...
Literary responses Helen Waddell
Two Dublin actors, HW 's brother Sam and Lennox Robinson , praised the play for the opportunities it offered to performers, and Waddell was very excited when George Bernard Shaw read and liked it.
Blackett, Monica. The Mark of the Maker: A Portrait of Helen Waddell. Constable.
90-2
Friends, Associates Ethel Lilian Voynich
Stepniak and his work, including Underground Russia, 1883, were influential in ELV 's personal life and career.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Gray, Anne, and Pam Blevins. The World of Women in Classical Music. WordWorld Publications, pp. 876-7.
876
He taught her Russian, pushed her to continue writing, and was the first to introduce her...

Timeline

1878: William Swan Sonnenschein and J. Archibald...

Writing climate item

1878

William Swan Sonnenschein and J. Archibald Allen formed a partnership in the publishing firm of Swan Sonnenschein and Allen , at 15 Paternoster Square, London.

1883: L. R. S. Tomalin, an early disciple of Gustave...

Building item

1883

L. R. S. Tomalin , an early disciple of Gustave Jaeger 's woollen movement, set up the Jaeger Company in Fore Street, London, to sell Dr Jaeger's Sanitary Woollen Clothing..

January 1884: The Fabian Society was founded in London...

National or international item

January 1884

The Fabian Society was founded in London to publicize socialist ideas and investigate the application of socialist principles to British conditions.

Christmas 1889: The Fabian Essays appeared, edited by George...

Writing climate item

Christmas 1889

The Fabian Essays appeared, edited by George Bernard Shaw .

early June 1890: Philippa Fawcett of Newnham College, Cambridge,...

Building item

early June 1890

Philippa Fawcett of Newnham College, Cambridge , was placed above the Senior Wrangler in the university's mathematics results.

February 1891: Theatre producer and critic J. T. Grein founded...

Building item

February 1891

Theatre producer and critic J. T. Grein founded the Independent Theatre Society in London to promote literary rather than commercial plays, and the new drama in particular.

April 1892: Physical confrontation broke out at a meeting...

Building item

April 1892

Physical confrontation broke out at a meeting in St James's Hall, London, of supporters of women's franchise.

By April 1894: English theatre patron Annie Horniman funded...

Writing climate item

By April 1894

English theatre patron Annie Horniman funded a repertory season at the Avenue Theatre (later the Avenue Playhouse), London which concentrated on the new drama.

1897: With her publication of Grains of Sense,...

Women writers item

1897

With her publication of Grains of Sense, philosopher Victoria, Lady Welby , shifted from theology towards a more academic and analytic study of meaning.

31 May 1898: George Bedborough, secretary of the Legitimation...

Building item

31 May 1898

George Bedborough , secretary of the Legitimation League which sought to change the law to improve the position of illegitimate children, was arrested, largely in an attempt to damage the League through him.

1904: Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (father of the...

Building item

1904

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (father of the writers Viola and Iris Tree ) founded an Academy of Dramatic Art at His Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket, London.

Autumn 1904 to summer 1907: Under the management of playwright and director...

Writing climate item

Autumn 1904 to summer 1907

Under the management of playwright and director Harley Granville-Barker and business manager J. E. Vedrenne , the Court Theatre became the first permanent home of the new drama.

1906: Tolstoy on Shakespeare, which included a...

Women writers item

1906

Tolstoy on Shakespeare, which included a translation of Tolstoy by Isabella Fyvie Mayo as I. F. M., and Vladimir Grigorevich Chertkov as V. Tchertkoff (as well as an essay by George Bernard Shaw ), was published.

1906: At the Annual General Meeting of the Society...

Women writers item

1906

At the Annual General Meeting of the Society of Authors , George Bernard Shaw deplored the dragging down of literary earnings by groups possessing a non-literary income, particularly married women.

1907: Alfred Richard Orage and Holbrook Jackson...

Writing climate item

1907

Alfred Richard Orage and Holbrook Jackson acquired the weekly reviewNew Age (founded in 1894).
Kindley, Evan. “Ismism”. London Review of Books, Vol.
36
, No. 2, pp. 33-5.
34
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Orage
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

Texts

Shaw, George Bernard. “An Explanatory Word from Mr. Shaw”. Florence Farr, Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats: Letters, edited by Clifford Bax, Home and Van Thal, 1946, p. vii - x.
Shaw, George Bernard. Arms and the Man. G. Richards, 1894.
Shaw, George Bernard. Back to Methuselah. Brentano’s, 1921.
Shaw, George Bernard. Buoyant Billions: Farfetched Fables, and Shakes versus Shav. Constable and Company, 1950.
Shaw, George Bernard. Common Sense about the War. Statesman Pub. Co., 1914.
Shaw, George Bernard. Fanny’s First Play. Constable, 1910.
Shaw, George Bernard. Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War. Constable, 1919.
Shaw, George Bernard. In Good King Charles’s Golden Days: A History Lesson. Constable & Co., 1939.
Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull’s Other Island and Major Barbara: also How He Lied to Her Husband. The Times Book Club, 1907.
Shaw, George Bernard. Man and Superman; a Comedy, and a Philosophy. A. Constable, 1903.
Shaw, George Bernard. “Note on Lady Gregory’s Plays”. Lady Gregory, Fifty Years After, edited by Dan H. Laurence et al., Colin Smythe, 1987, pp. 274-6.
Shaw, George Bernard. Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant. G. Richards, 1898.
Shaw, George Bernard. Press Cuttings. Constable & Co., 1909.
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. Constable & Co., 1914.
Shaw, George Bernard. Saint Joan. Constable, 1923.
Shaw, George Bernard. The Apple Cart. Constable & Co., 1930.
Shaw, George Bernard. The Doctor’s Dilemma, Getting Married, and The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet. Constable and Company, 1911.
Shaw, George Bernard. The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. Constable & Co., 1928.
Shaw, George Bernard. The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Walter Scott, 1891.
Shaw, George Bernard. The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Hill and Wang, 1937.
Shaw, George Bernard. Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion. G. Richards, 1901.
Shaw, George Bernard. Too True to be Good: Village Wooing, and On the Rocks. Constable and Company, Limited., 1934.
Shaw, George Bernard. What I Really Wrote about the War. Constable & Co., 1931.