Valerie Fine, age 15, of Birmingham, Ala., for her question:
WHO WAS GEORGE BERNARD SHAW?
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish born dramatist, critic and essayist. He ranks as one of the most important literary figures of the 1900s. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925.
Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856, lived for 94 years and died in 1950.
The writer was influenced by the revolutionary social dramas of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. He viewed the theater as a platform for supporting social reforms. He disliked the romantic and sentimental Victorian theater of the late 1800s.
In a most remarkable career that covered about 60 years, Shaw wrote more than 50 plays: Most of them are comedies in which a debate on ethics is as important as traditional dramatic values such as character and appeals to the emotions of the audience.
Shaw was a mischievous and original thinker. He defended women's rights, became a vegetarian and promoted a simplified alphabet. He defended his opinions in a series of essays, many published as prefaces to his plays.
Like his plays, Shaw's essays are charming for their brilliance and wit, even when the causes they argue no longer seem daring or unconventional.
"Saint Joan," a drama about the individual in conflict with historical necessity, was written in 1923. Many regard this play as Shaw's very best work and consider it to be his masterpiece.
Other critics say Shaw's masterpiece was "Pygmalion," which was written in 1912. This ironic Cinderella story describes how a professor of speech sounds demonstrates the absurdity of class distinctions by changing an ignorant Cockney girl into a counterfeit aristocrat by changing her speech.
Shaw's "Pygmalion" was adapted into the popular musical production "My Fair Lady" in 1956.
Another classic Shaw play is "Man and Superman" which was first performed in 1903.
Shaw moved to London in 1876. Because of their radical subject matter, many of his early plays did not become popular immediately.
Shaw's first play, written in 1892 and called "Widower's Houses," attacked slum landlords. "Mrs. Warren's Profession" was written in 1893 and was immediately banned.
Public hostility to Shaw started to disappear after 1904 when he produced 11 of his plays in less than three years at the Royal Court Theater. These included "Candida," "The Devil's Disciples" and "Caesar and Cleopatra."
"Man and Superman" introduced Shaw's theory of what he called the "life force." To Shaw, the "life force" was energy that dominates man biologically. However, when harnessed by man's will, the "life force" can lead to a higher, more creative existence.
Among Shaw's later and greater plays were "Major Barbara" written in 1905, "The Doctor's Dilemma" written in 1906, "Androcles and the Lion" written in 1913 and "Heartbreak House" which was written in 1919 .