Editing George Bernard Shaw (section)

===London===
Early in 1876 Shaw learned from his mother that Agnes was dying of [[tuberculosis]]. He resigned from the land agents, and in March travelled to England to join his mother and Lucy at Agnes's funeral. He never again lived in Ireland, and did not visit it for twenty-nine years.{{sfn|Ervine 1959 DNB archive}}

[[File:Bernard-Shaw-1879.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=young man with faint, wispy beard|Shaw in 1879]]

Initially, Shaw refused to seek clerical employment in London. His mother allowed him to live free of charge in her house in [[South Kensington]], but he nevertheless needed an income. He had abandoned a teenage ambition to become a painter, and had not yet thought of writing for a living, but Lee found a little work for him, [[ghost-writing]] a musical column printed under Lee's name in a satirical weekly, ''The Hornet''.{{sfn|Ervine 1959 DNB archive}} Lee's relations with Bessie deteriorated after their move to London.{{refn|Shaw attributed the breach to Bessie's disillusion when Lee abandoned his distinctive teaching methods to pursue a cynically commercial exploitation of gullible pupils; others, including Holroyd, have suggested that Bessie was resentful that Lee's affections were turning elsewhere, not least to her daughter Lucy.{{sfn|Westrup|1966|p=58}}{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=40–41}}|group=n}} Shaw maintained contact with Lee, who found him work as a rehearsal pianist and occasional singer.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=40–41}}{{refn|Shaw had a passable [[baritone]] voice,{{sfn|Pharand|2000|p=24}} though he admitted that he was far outclassed as a singer by his sister Lucy, who had a career as a [[soprano]] with the [[Carl Rosa Opera Company|Carl Rosa]] and [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company|D'Oyly Carte]] opera companies.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=25 and 68}}{{sfn|Rollins and Witts 1962|pp=54–55 and 58}}|group=n}}

Eventually Shaw was driven to applying for office jobs. In the interim he secured a reader's pass for the [[British Museum]] Reading Room (the forerunner of the [[British Library]]) and spent most weekdays there, reading and writing.{{sfn|Laurence|1976|p=8}} His first attempt at drama, begun in 1878, was a [[blank-verse]] satirical piece on a religious theme. It was abandoned unfinished, as was his first try at a novel. His first completed novel, ''Immaturity'' (1879), was too grim to appeal to publishers and did not appear until the 1930s.{{sfn|Weintraub|2013}} He was employed briefly by the newly formed Edison Telephone Company in 1879–80 and, as in Dublin, achieved rapid promotion. Nonetheless, when the [[National Telephone Company|Edison firm merged]] with the rival Bell Telephone Company, Shaw chose not to seek a place in the new organisation.{{sfn|Peters|1996|pp=56–57}} Thereafter he pursued a full-time career as an author.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|p=48}}

For the next four years Shaw made a negligible income from writing, and was subsidised by his mother.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=48–49}} In 1881, for the sake of economy, and increasingly as a matter of principle, he became a [[vegetarian]].{{sfn|Weintraub|2013}} In the same year he suffered an attack of [[smallpox]]; eventually he grew a beard to hide the resultant facial scar.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|pp=55–56}}{{refn|Vegetarianism and the luxuriant beard were among the things with which Shaw became associated by the general public. He was also a [[teetotaller]] and non-smoker, and was known for his habitual costume of unfashionable woollen clothes, made for him by [[Jaeger (clothing)|Jaeger]].{{sfn|Weintraub|2013}}{{sfn|Peters|1996|pp= 102–103}}{{sfn|Pearce|1997|p=127}}|group=n}} In rapid succession he wrote two more novels: ''The Irrational Knot'' (1880) and ''Love Among the Artists'' (1881), but neither found a publisher; each was [[Serial (literature)|serialised]] a few years later in the socialist magazine ''Our Corner''.{{sfn|Holroyd|1990|p=120}}{{refn|''The Irrational Knot'' was eventually published in book form by Constable, in 1905;{{sfn|Rodenbeck|1969|p=67}} ''Love Among the Artists'' was first published as a book in 1900, by H. S. Stone of Chicago.{{sfn|''Love Among the Artists'': WorldCat}}|group=n}}

In 1880 Shaw began attending meetings of the Zetetical Society, whose objective was to "search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race".{{sfn|Bevir|2011|p=155}} Here he met [[Sidney Webb]], a junior civil servant who, like Shaw, was busy educating himself. Despite difference of style and temperament, the two quickly recognised qualities in each other and developed a lifelong friendship. Shaw later reflected: "You knew everything that I didn't know and I knew everything you didn't know&nbsp;... We had everything to learn from one another and brains enough to do it".{{sfn|Holroyd|1990|pp=172–173}}

[[File:William Archer.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Victorian photograph of man in early middle age, with centre-parted hair and a walrus moustache|[[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]], colleague and benefactor of Shaw]]

Shaw's next attempt at drama was a one-act playlet in French, ''Un Petit Drame'', written in 1884 but not published in his lifetime.{{sfn|Pharand|2000|p=6}} In the same year the critic [[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]] suggested a collaboration, with a plot by Archer and dialogue by Shaw.{{sfn|Adams|1971|p=64}} The project foundered, but Shaw returned to the draft as the basis of ''[[Widowers' Houses]]'' in 1892,{{sfn|Yde|2013|p=46}} and the connection with Archer proved of immense value to Shaw's career.{{sfn|Holroyd|1997|p=79}}