George Bernard Shaw was born on 26 July 1856 in Dublin. After working in an estate agency in Dublin, he moved to London in 1876, where he established his reputation as a leading art critic and became a prominent and active member of the Fabian Society, for which he composed many pamphlets. He began his literary career as a novelist, writing five novels between 1878 and 1883, all of which were initially rejected by publishers. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen, Shaw began to write plays, and his early dramas, such as Widowers Houses (1892) and Mrs. Warren's Profession (1893), attacked the social hypocrisy of the time.
From 1897 until 1903, Shaw served as a vestryman and later as a borough councillor of St. Pancras in London.
While recovering from an illness in 1898, he met Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend (1857-1943), daughter of an Irish barrister, and they married later in the same year. Shaw continued to write plays, many with political themes, including Man and Superman (1903) and Major Barbara (1905). Other important plays written by Shaw during this period were Androcles and the Lion (1912) and Pygmalion (1912).
Shaw's status as a playwright continued to grow after the First World War with plays such as Saint Joan (1923), and in 1925, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He continued to write plays and books and pamphlets on political and social issues. He died on 2 November 1950 at Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire.
From the guide to the Charlotte and George Bernard Shaw collection, 1912-1924, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
