November 18, 1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to receive a Nobel prize

In the first 9 years of his career, Shaw received only 30 USD in royalties!

November 18, 1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to receive the prize of the Nobel Prize in poverty

George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856 - November 2, 1950) is an Irish-English playwright who is the "father" of modern concept drama, "one of the best playwright in the era ". . He is also a successful political activist who fights for equality of men and women and social justice. So far, he is the only person in the world to receive two noble awards: the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and the Oscar (1938).

Despite this, he was one of the few people who dared to deny the prize money from the Swedish award committee on November 18, 1926 because he penetrated the destitute and destitute of the writers when he was new. Starting a business, he used all of the $ 35,000 of the Nobel Prize that year to establish " Literary Fund for Writer Authors". He is also one of the few writers who become rich from writing. Even when he refused to accept the money, Shaw said a very famous statement: "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for his invention of the explosive but only the devil can think of the Nobel Prize. ".

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, was the third child of George Carr Shaw (1814 - 1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw (1830 - 1913). The previous father was a civil servant who later turned to a failed grain business to become an alcoholic, his mother was a professional singer and sister of Lucinda Frances (1853 - 1920) - a famous opera singer. When Shaw was poor, he was gifted with music, soon understood and loved the work of famous musicians, learned more about painting in Dublin. At the age of 15 he worked as an apprentice and cashier for a real estate firm.

In 1876, he followed his mother and two sisters to London to live, write music reviews for newspapers to earn money, self-study, care and actively participate in social activities. In 1884 he joined the founding of Fabian Society (Fabian Society) - the organization of British intellectuals advocating transition from capitalism to socialism by way of peace. From 1879 to 1883, Shaw wrote his first Immaturity novel (Non-fiction) and five other works that were not printed; An Unsocial Socialist (A socialist socialist, 1884) was the first novel to be printed in 1887. Shaw is considered the father of " conceptual drama ", he began writing plays from 1885, but started to be famous with Widowers' Houses (Houses of widows, 1892). By 1903, his drama took over the American and German stage; in 1904 dominated the domestic stage. He became even more famous when the King of England attended the performance of John Bull's Other Island (Another Island of John Bull, 1904), after which his drama spread to European countries.

In addition, he was also considered the best playwright in Britain at the time, he wanted to use art to awaken people first to require changing the bourgeois order with all its institutions and customs. . He emphasized the educational function of the theater, but seeing the function of education is not an imposition from the playwright but arousing the aesthetic needs of the audience. The harsh problems of contemporary society such as the island's predominant power, exploitative patterns, and the poverty of the people lead to social evils clearly reflected in Shaw's drama. Shaw's drama style tends to be satirical, sarcastic, finding its way to truth through paradoxes.

Shaw's youngest dream was to earn a sum of money, then marry a wealthy wife. However, before becoming so wealthy that he could spend $ 35,000 on charity and enough money to travel around the world, Shaw went through many years of hardship and hardship. In the first 9 years of his career, Shaw received only 30 USD in royalties! Shaw is so poor that he doesn't even have the toll to get his manuscript to publishers. Shaw's clothes are tattered, his shoes open . All of Shaw's spending looks at his mother's allowance. When he got his name and remembered the miserable days, Shaw often frowned: "I should have supported my family, the results are the opposite . I have never done anything for my family, and my mother has to Trying to work and raising me even though I was an adult . ", but Shaw decided not to give up writing.

Realizing that, if he looked at the real royalties by publishing novels, the journey to the destination seemed far away, Shaw then turned to writing plays . Shaw has calculated this: If the script is made public, the author will have revenue through the number of tickets issued and the number of shows. At the same time, the name of the author is also quickly known to the public. On the other hand, he said, only theater can " awaken people before the change of modern social order with all its institutions and customs". Besides, Shaw also judged that besides entertainment functions, the drama also contains the function of education, through arousing the aesthetic needs of the audience. He did not hesitate to bring to the stage all the most pressing issues of contemporary society such as the money's inertia, the poverty of the people, and the social evils .

Saint Joan is still performing until now.

Saint Joan - Saint Joan completed in 1923, judged to be the culmination of Shaw's writing career, was performed throughout European stages and also caused great popularity. Two years after the birth of "The Lady of Joan", Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for " the ideological and highly humanistic compositions, especially the spectacular satirical plays, combined with looks. Strange beauty of poetry " . With humor and humor, when he won the Nobel Prize, Shaw said: " The Nobel Prize for literature is like a float thrown to a swimmer." Although he thought he was the "swimmer to the shore", Shaw never left the pen. And 13 years after receiving the Nobel Prize, one of Shaw's scripts was made into a film and received the best Oscar for the script. It was "Pygmalion", a script he wrote in 1912.

In terms of scenario remuneration, Shaw receives an average of $ 100,000 a year, enough to spend on life, "reproduce" writing and traveling. It was only possible to marry a wealthy wife until the age of 40 years old. Shaw always thinks that he "has no marriage status because he always worries others ." In terms of form, Shaw is not very attractive because of his skinny body, limbs and limbs, but watching as the sisters did not allow him to carry out his intention to preserve his "absolute freedom" . There have been many beautiful female actors actively proclaiming marriage proposal to Shaw, but he always uses humorous sentences to refuse.

Describing the George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein's physical genius after having met him had to say: "There are rare people who are so independent that they can see the weaknesses and absurdities of contemporaries. and at the same time do not let me get into it, but even so, when I encounter the hardships of life, these lonely people often lose their courage in helping humanity. , with subtle humor and gentleness, can enthrall contemporaries and deserve to be torchbearers on the way of art's unfavorable ways, today, with a passionate affection, I salute celebrate the biggest teacher on that path - the one who taught us and made us all feel happy happy ". It was a rare meeting of two great people in London in the fall of 1930.