SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD, a Brit ish playwright, born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1856. He attended school until he was fifteen, when he became a clerk in a real estate office, which position he held for five years, until he left his native city to seek a career as a journalist in London. For more than ten years he gained a of her sex, and in 1880 she was ordained by the Methodist Protestant Church, be ing the first woman ordained in that body. She became active as a suffrage lecturer in 1885, and continued to lecture on be half of the movement for the remainder of her life. From 1904 to 1915 she was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and from 1915 was honorary president. She was precarious livelihood as a "free lance" journalist, meanwhile devoting his spare time to writing novels. Most of these early works were published serially in Socialist papers and magazines, and at tracted little general attention. Among them are "Cashel Byron's Profession" (in book form, 1886) ; "An Unsocial Social ist" (1899) ; and "Love Among the Art ists" (1900). In 1885 Shaw became dramatic critic of the "Pall Mall Gazette" and, later, of "The Saturday Review," and began immediately to attract public attention by his masterly reviews. From
this first association with the stage, he began to write plays himself, the first few of which were produced and gained him considerable reputation, but did not prove financially successful. Among these were "Widowers' Houses" (produced at the Independent Theater, 1892) ; and "Arms and the Man" (1894). The turn ing point in his favor came in 1904, when his "John Bull's Other Island" was pro duced and immediately became popular. Many of his plays have been presented in this country and have been appreciated by select audiences, but Shaw's plays are of too subtle a style ever to attain broad popularity. He has also been prominent as a Socialist speaker and was one of the founders of the Fabian Society. Dur ing the World War Shaw showed himself strongly in favor of the Allied cause, but at the same time his scathing de nouncement of many of the inefficiencies at home made him strongly disliked by those who believed that war-time was no time for criticism. Among his most re cent plays are: "The Inca of Perusalem" (1915) ; "Heartbreak House" (1917); and "O'Flaherty V. C." (1919).