In 1885, W.T. Stead offered him a post as reviewer on the staff of the Pall Wall Gazette; this was followed by the even more congenial appointment as art critic to the World under Edmund Yates. As “Cornetto di Basseto” he was acting as musical critic to the Star in 1889-1890, and the play-writing period begins.
The first, Widowers’ houses, appeared in 1892, and Arms and the Man two years later. From 1895-1899, he was dramatic critic of the Saturday Review, collecting his criticisms and publishing them in two volumes of Dramatic Opinions (1906). In Fabian Society, Mr. Shaw joined its ranks on September 4, 1884, and immediately threw hams into the thickest of the work, whether organizing, writing, or lecturing. One of his best known papers was that on Bison, read at St. James’ Restaurant with Mrs. Besant in the chair; it was published later as the Quintessence of Ibsen’s.