George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

George Bernard Shaw understood that the English class system was maintained not by law or force but by accent. If you spoke as the upper classes spoke, you were assumed to be one of them. If you did not, no amount of intelligence or talent would compensate. Pygmalion — his most famous play — is a proof of this argument performed on stage.

His dialogue is incorruptible in its sharpness: every character speaks exactly as their position in the world requires, and Shaw shows you the machinery behind the performance. His wit is not ornamental. It is surgical. He uses laughter to keep the audience watching something they would otherwise find too uncomfortable to see.

He received the Nobel Prize in 1925. He was reluctant. A line often attributed to him, though probably not his own, runs: "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize." What he certainly did was call the money "a lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety." He accepted the honour, refused the money, and had it used to fund translations of Swedish literature into English.

He gave no Nobel Lecture. The prize for 1925 was held over and awarded only in 1926. Read about it at NobelPrize.org.