George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950), who went by Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright and critic who was the leading dramatist of his era and is considered by many to rank second only to Shakespeare in the roster of English-language dramatists.  He was born in Dublin to a Protestant family of English descent and moved to London in 1876 with the ambition to become a writer. Within ten years he had undertaken an extensive self-education and established himself as a theatre and music critic. He first achieved success with Arms and the Man in 1894 after many years of writing plays. He went on to produce over sixty plays, including Pygmalion (1912), Man and Superman (1902), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1902), and Saint Joan (1923). While his style ranges from contemporary satire to historical allegory, he consistently used his plays to promote his often controversial political and social thinking. He was an outspoken proponent of reform along Democratic socialist lines, promoted alphabet reform and eugenics, and opposed organized religion and vaccination.  In 1898 Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townsend, a wealthy Anglo-Irish woman who nursed him back to health after an illness. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 and an Academy Award for his screenplay for Pygmalion in 1938. The word “Shavian” has entered the language as a term used to describe his ideas and manner of communicating them.