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 Enid Bagnold
Call Me Jacky was, as EB 's biographer Anne Sebba put it, her most disastrous failure yet.
Sebba, Anne. Enid Bagnold: The Authorized Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
240
As EB saw it, audiences and critics considered her anti-black, anti-left, a sorry old bitch sitting in...
Literary responses Elizabeth Baker
Critic Sheila Stowell , contrasting Baker's heroine with Bernard Shaw 's more ambivalent characterizations of the New Woman, sees the role of Edith as a clear and positive alternative for women.
Stowell, Sheila. A Stage of Their Own. University of Michigan Press.
103
Weiss, Rudolf. “Versions of Emancipation: The Dramatic World of Elizabeth Baker”. Sprachkunst, Vol.
20
, No. 2, pp. 305-16.
311
Textual Features Hélène Barcynska
This clearly draws on the relationship between HB and Charles as she was to describe it in her autobiography. The fairy has kept herself for two weeks by her writing, but now seems more interested...
Friends, Associates Sylvia Beach
Beach and Joyce had a bet to see whether Bernard Shaw would purchase a copy of Ulysses. Beach lost when Shaw wrote to say that she knew little of [his] countrymen if she thought...
Travel Stella Benson
SB holidayed on the French Riviera, where she met Michael Arlen and George Bernard Shaw .
Grant, Joy. Stella Benson: A Biography. Macmillan.
247-8
Intertextuality and Influence Theodora Benson
Robert Browning 's poem to Emily Patmore , the original angel in the house, is quoted at the head of the first chapter. Unlike TB 's first novel, this is a romance with a consummated...
Occupation Inez Bensusan
Organisers chose to present two feminist plays by men, Woman on Her Own by Eugène Brieux , translated by Charlotte Shaw (Bernard Shaw 's wife), and A Gauntlet by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson .
Hirshfield, Claire. “The Woman’s Theatre in England: 1913-1918”. Theatre History Studies, Vol.
15
, pp. 123-37.
125-6
All...
politics Annie Besant
AB led the first strike of match girls, formed their union, and was elected its Secretary in July 1888. They were inspired, in part, by her article on their working conditions, published in The Link...
Textual Production Annie Besant
AB owned and edited the magazine Our Corner, which was launched in 1883 and ran until 1888. It cost sixpence and featured fiction, essays, and poetry along with puzzles, and information about chess, gardening...
Literary responses Annie Besant
George Bernard Shaw discovered AB 's turn to Theosophy when he found proofs for this publication on her desk; his reaction was intense and negative.
Dinnage, Rosemary. Annie Besant. Penguin.
80
politics Annie Besant
AB , now a socialist, became executive secretary of Fabian Society (which she had joined that year, nominated for election to membership by George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb ).
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press.
174-5, 177-8
Cultural formation Annie Besant
In the course of her life, AB explored many facets of religion and politics. Early in her life she entertained a passionate Christian devotion and was inspired by the idea of sacrifice, even martyrdom. She...
Friends, Associates Annie Besant
AB met Edward Aveling , described by George Bernard Shaw as a borrower of money and a swindler and seducer of women,
Dinnage, Rosemary. Annie Besant. Penguin.
51
around the time that she began university studies. Unlike Shaw, AB thought...
Friends, Associates Annie Besant
Soon after AB met George Bernard Shaw , possibly as early as 1884, they became close friends, sharing a bond in their activities with the Fabian Society . Shaw later claimed that some romantic intrigue...
Family and Intimate relationships Muriel Box
MB 's mother was christened Caroline Beatrice (Doney) but known as Bertie.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Box, Muriel. Odd Woman Out. Leslie Frewin.
14, 16
She was a woman of passion, of deep-rooted prejudices, capable of violent outbursts of temper when her will was crossed. She...

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: 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.

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.

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.