Claim: George Bernard Shaw went his whole life without learning how to read and write.
Evidence: George Bernard Shaw -LRB- -LSB- ˈdʒɔːrdʒ _ ` bɜːrˌnərd_ʃɔː -RSB- 26 July 1856 -- 2 November 1950 -RRB- , known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw , was an Irish playwright -LRB- who held both British and Irish citizenship -RRB- , critic and polemicist whose influence on Western theatre , culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond.