George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland on July 26, 1856. Shaw hated school and dropped out of four schools. He later wrote "Schools and schoolmasters were prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.”

In 1873 after working in a land office for a while Shaw moved to London. After working in a number of clerical jobs Shaw began to work full time as a writer in 1880. After a number of works barely sold he became a music critic in 1884, a job he kept until 1894 and one that he was very successful at. During this period he continued to write and began to achieve critical acclaim.

Celebrated as a 20th-century giant of the theatre, Shaw is known mostly for his plays, although he first worked as a journalist, critic and novelist. Always interested in politics and ethics, the witty and incisive Shaw focused on moral and intellectual issues in his plays, which include The Devil's Disciple (1897), Major Barbara (1905), Pygmalion (1916) and Saint Joan (1923).

Shaw was an early member of the socialist Fabian Society.