George Bernard Shaw went his whole life without learning how to read and write.
George Bernard Shaw ( [ ˈdʒɔːrdʒ _ ` bɜːrˌnərd_ʃɔː ] 26 July 1856 -- 2 November 1950 ) , known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw , was an Irish playwright ( who held both British and Irish citizenship ) , critic and polemicist whose influence on Western theatre , culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond . Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success , 1894 's Arms and the Man .