Work

Eventually, in 1885 the drama critic William Archer found in Shaw a steady journalist. His early journalism ranged from book reviews in the Pall Mall Gazette (1885-88) and art criticism in The World (1884-89) to brilliant musical columns in the Star (as "Corno-di-Bassetto" – basset horn) and from 1888 to 1890 and in the world (as "G.B.S.") from 1890 to 1894. Shaw truly began to make his mark when he was recruited by Frank Harris to the
‘Saturday Review’ as a theatre critic (1895-98); In that position, he used all his wit and polemical powers in a campaign to displace the artificialities and hypocrisies of the Victorian stage with a theatre of vital ideas. He also began writing his own plays.

George Bernard Shaw wrote several plays with political themes. This included Man and Superman (1902), John Bull’s Other Island, (1904) and Major Barbara (1905). These plays dealt with issues such as poverty and women’s rights and implied that Socialism could help solve the problems created by Capitalism. Shaw’s status as a playwright continued to grow after the war and plays such as Heartbreak House (1919); Back to Methuselah (1921); Saint Joan (1923); The Apple Cart (1929); and Too True to be Good (1932); were favorably received by the critics and in 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Shaw continued to write books and pamphlets on political and social issues. This included The Crime of Imprisonment (1922); Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism (1928); and Everybody’s Political What’s What (1944). He remained committed to the socialist cause until his death on November 2, 1950. Since the days of the silent films, Shaw had been a fan of motion pictures. He several screenplays among others, Saint Joan (1927), How He Lied to Her Husband’ (1931), Arms and the Man (1932), Pygmalion (1938) and Major Barbara (1941). During his long career, Shaw wrote over 50 plays.