A.M. Gibbs provides a comprehensive account of the life, career and associations of one of the most significant and influential literary figures of the modern age. Drawing on a wide range of published and unpublished material, the work aims to throw new light on the complex fabric of Shaw's career as playwright, novelist, orator, political activist, social commentator, avant garde thinker and controversialist. Images of Shaw's daily life, and of his tangled love affairs, flirtations and friendships, are intertwined with the records of his productive career as a public figure and creative writer, in a fully documented study which is both a scholarly resource and a biographical portrait. An introductory chapter explores theoretical issues in biography raised by the chronology form; and a chapter on Shaw's ancestry and family supplies new evidence about his Irish background. A "Who's Who" section contains thumbnail sketches of over 200 contemporaries of Shaw who had significant associations with him.