Shaw was born in Dublin on 26 July 1856, the son of a Protestant corn factor, George Carr Shaw, who was a failure and a drunkard, and professional singer Lucinda Elisabeth (Gurly) Shaw, the daughter of a destitute landowner. After the death of his father Shaw grew up in an environment of genteel poverty, however, the troubled earlier years, due mostly to his father's alcoholism, caused Shaw to embrace the puritanical lifestyle of a teatotaller and vegetarian and reject the name ‘George' which he never used personally or professionally. Scholars have suggested that Shaw's emotional relationships also had puritanical overtones that overflowed into his work making it impressive for its language, wit and ideas rather than its involvement with people.
Shaw hated the schooling he got at local day schools in Dublin and never went to university but took a job as a clerk in a real estate office. His mother ran off to London with her voice teacher, Vandeleur Lee, when Shaw was sixteen, taking his sisters with her. Four years later, Shaw left his father and followed his mother to London; none of the family returned for their father's funeral in 1885. Once in London Shaw pursued a career in journalism and writing. To broaden his knowledge he avidly read books at public libraries and the British Museum reading room. He also became involved in politics, overcoming stagefright and a stammer to stand on a soapbox at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park to share his socialist stance. In May 1884 Shaw joined the Fabian Society, a socialist political organization dedicated to transforming Britain into a socialist state as painlessly and effectively as possible by systematic progressive legislation, bolstered by persuasion and mass education. Shaw's energetic and aggressive speaking style, which would later be reflected in his writing, gained him the status of one of the most sought after orators in England.
From the mid-1880s onward Shaw established himself as a considerable critic of art, music and literature writing for Dramatic Review (1885-86), Our Corner (1885-86), The Pall Mall Gazette (1885-88), The World (1886-94), and The Star (1888-90) under the pen name of Corno bi Basetto. Shaw was a strong proponent for Wagner and Ibsen writing The Perfect Wagnerite (1898) and The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891). Shaw resigned as a theatre critic after a serious illness in 1898 and was nursed back to health by wealthy Charlotte Payne Townshend, whom he married. Their apparently unconsummated marriage lasted until her death in 1943.
His career as a playwright did not take off until nearer to 1910, as he was generally having more success getting his plays printed than performed. In his plays Shaw combined contemporary moral problems with ironic tone and paradoxes, a combination that became known as ‘Shavian wit'. Shaw used his plays to express his views on economic and social theories and with great satirical skill he exposed the sickness and foolishness of individuals and societies in England and the rest of the modern world.
His first play, Widower's Houses (1892), flouted the romantic conventions, which held sway in English theatres, by using Ibsenite devices and aims. Shaw's Man and Superman (1903) transformed the Byron's Don Juan legend by giving Shaw the opportunity to explore the intellectual climate of the new century. Another significant play was, Heartbreak House (1919) written during the First World War and used as a vehicle to expose the spiritual bankruptcy of his generation. Shaw is equally well known for his comedies, Major Barbara (1905), Androcles and the Lion (1913) and Pygmalion (1913). All in all Shaw wrote over 50 plays and was reknown as a freethinker, supporter of women's rights and socialist spokesman. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.