George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) (Playwright of Saint Joan) was born into genteel poverty in Dublin, Ireland, left formal schooling at age 15, was taught art and music and literature by his mother, preferred to go by Bernard, and is responsible for saying: “Youth is wasted on the young;” and “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything;” and “My way of joking is to the truth…It’s the funniest joke in the world.” Bernard moved to London at age 20 and wrote over 60 plays, including Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Pygmalion, and Heartbreak House. He was a proud Socialist and anti-WWI speaker and pamphleteer. His belief that our current cosmic period called Humanity as a short phase of the universe’s development en route to a higher evolution was informed by what he deemed our spiritual bankruptcy during warfare of the early 20th Century. He received the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature for “his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty.” At age 94, Bernard was still writing.
