MORRIS, May
(b. 1862, Bexleyheath, London, d. 1938, Kelmscott )

Valentine to George Bernard Shaw

1886
Pen and ink, watercolour and body colour on board, 266 x 186 mm
British Library, London

May Moris joined her father in the nascent English Socialist movement of the 1880s, becoming close to George Bernard Shaw in the more radical wing, the Socialist League.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. After a flirtation with Shaw, May Morris married fellow activist Harry Sparling in 1890, but a revival of her attraction to Shaw in 1893 resulted in divorce in 1898.