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/.
Sepia head-and-shoulders photograph of George Bernard Shaw by Bains News Service, 8 November 1909. He is seen full-face, with a neat beard, gazing a little to the right with a faint smile. He wears a wool jacket and waistcoat with thin stripes, and a bowler hat slightly tilted.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Characters Florence Farr
The Dancing Faun combines elements of melodrama, social realism, and comedy of manners.Grace Travers falls victim to her husband George's schemes to make a fortune by regaining entry into high society through deception and blackmail...
Cultural formation Florence Farr
FF grew up in a well-to-do, professional, English family that gave her access to a good education and exposed her to ideas of social reform. Bernard Shaw later commented that her privileged upbringing dulled her...
Cultural formation Amber Reeves
Born a New Zealander, she clearly regarded herself later in life as English. Her parents were highly educated professionals. Her mother was a suffragist, and both parents became members of the Fabian Society (founded three...
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...
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...
Education Muriel Box
MB early learned to read for herself (with some help from Reading Without Tears, a mid-Victorian textbook by Favell Lee Bevan, later Mrs Mortimer ) because her parents were often too busy to satisfy...
Education Olivia Manning
At home Olivia was encouraged to love poetry, learned to read by the time she was four, and was later subjected to piano lessons which taught her nothing. As a teenager and thinking of herself...
Education Viola Tree
In 1911 Bernard Shaw , who was an opera critic as well as a playwright, and a Tree family friend (his donations were crucial to the success of Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ), wrote...
Education Emma Frances Brooke
The school, which was founded this year by Beatrice and Sidney Webb , Graham Wallas , and George Bernard Shaw , focused on the study of inequalities and poverty issues with the aim of improving...
Education Meiling Jin
She was saved by the public Children's Library. She read omnivorously, beginning with the Dr Doolittle books (Hugh Lofting ) and fairy stories but missing out on Enid Blyton (who was kept locked away)...
Education Margaret Drabble
MD attended Mount School, York, a Quaker boarding school where her mother had taught English.
Todd, Janet, editor. Dictionary of British Women Writers. Routledge, 1989.
192
While there she acted the role of Bernard Shaw 's St Joan in a production by the Mount's brother school.
Hattersley, Roy. “The Darling of Hampstead”. The Guardian, 26 June 1999, pp. 6-7.
6
Education H. D.
Following her withdrawal from Bryn Mawr, HD (with Pound 's assistance) embarked on an intensive independent study programme that lasted for five years. During this period she read and studied writers such as William Morris
Family and Intimate relationships Naomi Jacob
She describes her mother as in advance of her times in many ways: a bicycle rider, a Poor Law Guardian,
Jacob, Naomi. Me: A Chronicle about Other People. Hutchinson, 1933.
38
witty, charming, deeply religious, but with no money and no idea how to...
Family and Intimate relationships Florence Farr
FF 's father, William Farr , was a successful doctor, medical statistician, and reformer. He lectured and published on the subject of hygiene, which he preferred to call hygiology. Bernard Shaw describes him as...
Family and Intimate relationships Iris Tree
Writer, critic, and caricaturist Sir Max Beerbohm was IT 's half-uncle, the youngest son from Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's father's second marriage. Best remembered for his drawings and caricatures of the famous, Beerbohm also wrote...

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.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 106. Gale Research, 1991.
106: 291-2

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..
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
185-7

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.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
309
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
323
Alexander, Sally, editor. Women’s Fabian Tracts. Routledge, 1988, http://U of A HSS HX 546 W925 1988.
1-3

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

Writing climate item

Christmas 1889

The Fabian Essays appeared, edited by George Bernard Shaw .
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson, 1987.
138

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.
McWilliams-Tullberg, Rita. Women at Cambridge. Gollancz, 1975.
57-9, 102
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1593
Oakley, Ann. Telling the Truth about Jerusalem. Basil Blackwell, 1986.
22 and n20
Kazantzis, Judith, editor. Women in Revolt: the fight for emancipation: a collection of contemporary documents. Cape, 1968.

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.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
318
McDonald, Jan. The ’New Drama’ 1900-1914. Grove Press, 1986.
1-2

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.
Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Routledge, 1996.
84-6
Rubinstein, David. Before the Suffragettes: Women’s Emancipation in the 1890s. Harvester, 1986.
144

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.
Hartnoll, Phyllis, editor. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 1983.
397

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.
Smith, Sean, archivist. “Letter from George Bernard Shaw to Lady Welby, Oct. 16, 1907”. York University: York University Gazette online: From the archives, 26 Jan. 2000.
Myers, William Andrew. “Victoria, Lady Welby 1837-1912”. Contemporary Women Philosophers, 1900-Today, edited by Mary Ellen Waithe, Kluwer, 1995, pp. 1-24.
4

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.
Forward, Stephanie. “A Study in Yellow: Mona Caird’s ’The Yellow Drawing-Room’”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
7
, No. 2, 2000, pp. 295-07.
298

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.
“RADA: A Brief History”. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

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.
McDonald, Jan. The ’New Drama’ 1900-1914. Grove Press, 1986.
2, 11-16
Tweedsmuir, Susan. A Winter Bouquet. G. Duckworth, 1954.
85

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.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

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.
The Author. Alexander P. Watt.
(Winter 2000) cxi: 4, Shaw Supplement

1907: Alfred Richard Orage and Holbrook Jackson...

Writing climate item

1907

Alfred Richard Orage and Holbrook Jackson acquired the weekly review New Age (founded in 1894).
Kindley, Evan. “Ismism”. London Review of Books, Vol.
36
, No. 2, 23 Jan. 2014, 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. 18 July 2011, 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, 2 vols.
Shaw, George Bernard. Press Cuttings. Constable & Co., 1909.
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. Constable & Co., 1914.
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. Constable, 1918.
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.