The famous philosopher, writer-playwright George Bernard Shaw considered all animals to be his friends and stated that therefore he could not eat them. He was outraged that people eat meat, and thus “suppress the highest spiritual treasure in themselves – sympathy and compassion for living beings like themselves.” Throughout his adult life, the writer was known as a convinced vegetarian: from the age of 25 he stopped eating animal products. He never complained about his health, lived to be 94 years old and survived the doctors who, worried about his condition, strongly recommended including meat in their diet.
The creative life of Bernard Shaw
Dublin is a city in Ireland where the future famous writer Bernard Shaw was born. His father abused alcohol, so the boy often heard conflicts between his parents in the family. Having reached adolescence, Bernard had to get a job and interrupt his education. Four years later, he decides to move to London in order to realize his dream of becoming a real writer. For nine years the young writer has been diligently composing. Five novels are published, for which he receives a fee of fifteen shillings.
By the age of 30, Shaw got a job as journalist in London newspapers, wrote musical and theatrical reviews. And only eight years later he began to write plays, the staging of which, at that time, was carried out only in small theaters. The writer tries to work with new directions in drama. But the fame and creative peak come to Shaw at 56 years old. By this time he had already become known for his vivid philosophical plays Caesar and Cleopatra, Arms and Man, and The Devil’s Apprentice. At this age, he gives the world another unique work – the comedy “Pygmalion”!
To date, Bernard Shaw is recognized as the only person who has been awarded the Oscar and the Nobel Prize. Shaw was grateful for such a decision of the jury, to make him a laureate of one of the highest awards in the field of literature, but refused a monetary award.
In the 30s, the Irish playwright went to the “state of hope,” as Shaw called the Soviet Union and met Stalin. In his opinion, Joseph Vissarionovich was a competent politician.
Asexual, vegetarian
Bernard Shaw was not only a staunch vegetarian but also asexual. So the life of the great writer developed that after the first and only woman (she was a widow, a very obese complexion), he no longer dared to have an intimate relationship with any of the fair sex. Shaw considered intercourse to be “monstrous and low”. But this did not stop him from marrying at 43, but on the condition that there would never be intimacy between the spouses. Bernard Shaw was attentive to his health, led an active lifestyle, loved to skate, bike, was categorical about alcohol and smoking. He checked his weight daily, calculated the calorie content of food, taking into account the profession, age, diet.
Shaw’s menu consisted of vegetable dishes, soups, rice, salads, puddings, sauces made from fruits. The Irish playwright had a negative attitude towards the circus, zoos and hunting, and compared animals in captivity to prisoners of the Bastille. Bernard Shaw remained mobile and a clear mind until 94 years and died not of illness, but because of a broken thigh: fell off a ladder while cutting trees.