5 Random Things About George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw is one of the most quotatious people in history. People from all walks of life often quote the man, but what do they really know about him? I found my knowledge a bit lacking and set out to learn more about the man that revolutionized British drama. While this won’t answer all of your questions, it will give you something to talk about the next time someone (mis)quotes him.

1. George Bernard Shaw lived to be 94 years old (1856-1950).
2. Shaw wrote his first novel, Immaturity, at the age of 23. However, it was the last one to be printed, over 50 years later, in 1931.
3. George Bernard Shaw was the first Nobel Laureate to refuse the prize. He was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, but did not wish to be honored publicly. He eventually accepted the award at the behest of his wife, but he refused the prize money. About the refusal, Shaw famously said, “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”
4. It’s a good thing that Shaw accepted the Nobel Prize because 13 years later, he would receive an Academy Award for his work on the screenplay for Pygmalion. George Bernard Shaw is the only person in history to receive both the Nobel Prize and an Oscar.
5. George Bernard Shaw was an ardent socialist, and his views on the class struggle were present in many of his works. However, Shaw believed that social reforms could be obtained peacefully, so he joined the Fabian Society, a British socialist movement that believed in evolutionary, not revolutionary, reform. The Fabian Society was instrumental in the creation of the British Labour Party in existence today.

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'” -George Bernard Shaw

Many of George Bernard Shaw’s works are in the public domain, and as such you can read some of them on the Amazon Kindle for FREE!

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