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“Newspapers are unable, seemingly,
to discriminate between a bicycle accident
and the collapse of civilization.”
George Bernard Shaw lived by his principles. An active
political organizer and speaker and a founding member
of the British Labour Party, he spoke out for numerous
causes, including the abolition of private property,
women’s rights, and the simplification of spelling. A
lifelong vegetarian, he abstained from alcohol and
tobacco. When awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1925, he accepted the honor but turned down
the money.
Over the course of his long life, he wrote essays,
theatre and music criticism, as well as more than
50 plays, including such classics as Pygmalion, Major
Barbara, and Saint Joan. Though some were simple
comedies, many dealt with the social issues that Shaw
fought for all his life. In a letter to Henry James, he wrote,
“What is the point of writing plays, what is the point of
writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds
chaos itself into a race of gods.” |
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George Bernard Shaw
(1856–1950) |
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