PART 3: George Bernard Shaw- from Nobel Prize to Oscar award
We reached the beautiful home of the celebrated Anglo- Irish playwright & socialist George Bernard Shaw and his wife Charlotte at Shaw’s Corner in England, enveloped in greenery. From writing the popular play Pygmalion in 1913 that inspired famous movies- Pygmalion 1938, My Fair Lady 1964 and Pretty Woman 1990 to the Literary Nobel Prize and the Oscar award; Shaw’s achievements were multiple. On the other hand, he supported Gandhi’s non-violent movement in pre independent India and even Nehru was his admirer who visited Shaw’s Corner.
A close up of Gandhi’s photo on the the mantel shelf of Shaw’s Dining room
Further we were keen to look out for Indian paintings and artefacts embellishing the artistic Shaws home. Commencing our tour from the Entrance Hall with GBS’s much-loved piano on which he played the Maestros, we had visited the Drawing room and Dining room where he breathed his last and we reached his Study.
Entrance Hall with view of Dining room and Study with unique Fire Hearth decorated with Eygptian items.
Study- girth of Interests
Shaw’s Study was dominated by rows of ceiling to floor bookshelves on one whole wall and two beautiful writing tables were the other highlight. He wrote frequently from the year 1880 till his death in1950 and most of his books based on his Plays, Essays or Theatre were displayed around us. His library reflected his astonishing girth of interests- art, music, religion, psychology, travel & yoga, biographies of Chaucer, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Saint Teresa and books by Hitler, Karl Marx and Trotsky too! I stepped into the time machine to watch GBS researching in this Study, the smaller desk being occupied by his secretary busy with administrative work.
Upstairs rooms- Museum room- Writing Bureau- Indian brass artefacts
A closeup-Indian brass artefacts in the Museum room of the Shaw’s Corner
First Floor- Then and Now
We climbed up the narrow staircase lined with unique sketches of birds to come across a water colour painting of the Taj Mahal!
The guide tried to stop the reflection of the glass as I took a precious photo as a memory. Ahead is the simple Bedroom of GBS in which he slept with ‘one open window theory’ through his lifetime! Past the wardrobe hung with his Jaeger clothes we headed for his large bathroom which he maintained methodically during his lifetime, having a bath every day!
Shaw’s simple bedroom where he slept with an open window
Meeting Charlotte Shaw & London School of Economics
Next we entered the original bedroom of Shaw’s wife Charlotte which is a Museum room now. George and Charlotte had a perfect wedding sharing common interests in Literature, Arts, Theatre and Politics. Presently, the Museum room holds changing- displays of Shaw’s lifetime works.
Museum room- Charlotte’s former bedroom with her portrait ,Oscar, Indian artefacts on compartment of Writing Bureau
One wall is dominated with the youthful pastel painting of beautiful Charlotte in 1895. She met Shaw in 1896 when she got involved in Fabian society- a British socialist organisation. 4 Fabians founded the London School of Economics in 1894 and GBS was one of them! He was one of the earliest member of the Fabian Society of 1884. Miss Charlotte Payne Townshend donated 1000 pounds to the Fabian society’s newly formed London School of Economics and leased the space-Adelphi Terrace Westminster to where the LSE moved in 1895!
Later in life, she travelled extensively to India, Egypt & Italy and had gathered the beautiful artefacts and paintings on her tours that we were seeing on the house-tour.
Nobel prize & Oscar- Museum Room
We looked out for the framed Nobel Prize for literature that Shaw received in 1926 and next I spotted a year 1939 Oscar award figure that he received for screenplay of Pygmalion written by him much earlier in 1913! We were amused to know that he used it as a Doorstop!! Shaw was the first person to be awarded both an Oscar and Nobel Prize!
Nobel Prize for Literature 1926-Upstairs- Museum room
George Bernard Shaw was a fervent keen photographer who collected about 16000 photographs taken by himself and others from1860 to 1950! He had once commented with a hint of sarcasm, on himself – ‘I had aspired to be Michael Angelo and not a Shakespeare. But I could not draw well enough to satisfy myself; and the instruction I could get was worse than useless. So when dry plates and push buttons came into the market, I bought a box camera and began pushing the buttons’
Gandhi at the second Round Table Conference 1931 in London
A close up of Gandhi at the Round Table conference 1931
Kitchen & Shaw’s Vegetarianism
We were back downstairs and curiously entered the small early 20th century well equipped kitchen and found that National Trust has preserved it as it must have been more than 100 years ago!
Kitchen early 20th century
The guide informed that George Bernard Shaw was a vegetarian and Charlotte was a non-vegetarian. He had fixed mealtimes and most of the vegetables & fruit that he ate grew in the home garden. When once British philosopher and Literature Nobel Prize winner -Bertrand Russel shared a vegetarian meal with Shaw at his home, he said that the meal was delicious!
The ahead of time Bell system in the Shaws kitchen run efficiently by devoted Higgs couple_
We were informed that the Kitchen was managed by Higgs couple who were more like family to the Shaws. Then we looked up at the Bell system with room-names on it but Shaw respected the Higgs so much that he did not ring the Bell; rather sought them out in person!
Au Revoir
Visitor relaxing in the back garden near the Writing Hut
Completing the tour of the Home and Garden of George Bernard Shaw we browsed through the vast second hand book shop holding numerous books written by him as well as those by other authors. I drove away from the serenity of Shaw’s Corner where his ashes lay scattered with his wife Charlotte near his beloved Writing Hut; his words echoing in my ears:
This my dell and this my dwelling
Their charm so far beyond my telling
That though in Ireland is my birthplace
This home shall be my final earthplace
Writer outside Shaw’s Corner- home to playwright George Bernard Shaw
Photo Courtesy
Arvind Chopra.