George Orwell

George Orwell (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English writer. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair. He used the pen name George Orwell for his novels.

He was born in India during the British Empire's rule of India. He is best known for two novels that he wrote in the late 1940s, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. In those works, he said that totalitarianism, especially Stalinism, was very bad. He was a democratic socialist.

Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War with the Marxist Workers’s Unification Party. They fought for Communism and against the dictatorship of fascist governments.

Orwell died of tuberculosis in London.

 Early life 
Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903, in India. His great-grandfather Charles Blair was a rich gentleman who had married Lady Mary Fane, and he owned slaves and plantations in Jamaica. His grandfather, Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, was a clergyman.Taylor, D.J. Orwell: The Life. Henry Holt and Company. 2003.  His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Indian Civil Service. His mother, Ida Mabel Blair, grew up in Burma. He had a younger sister Avril and an older sister Marjorie. When Eric was one year old, Ida took him to England.Bernard Crick. George Orwell: A Life. Secker & Warburg 1980. Stansky and Abrahams had suggested that Mrs Blair moved to England in 1907 because of information given by Avril Blair remembering a time before she was born.

Eric grew up with his mother and sisters. Except for a short visit, he did not see his father again until 1912. The family moved to Shiplake before World War I. There, Eric became friends with the Buddicom family, especially Gertrude Butticom. They read poetry and hoped to become famous writers. At this time, he also liked fishing and watching birds with his brother and sister.Buddicom, Jacintha. Eric & Us. Finlay Publisher. 2006. 

When he was five, Eric was sent to a Catholic convent school where Marjorie went.Gordon Bowker, Orwell, p.21 His mother wanted him to go to public school, but his family was not rich enough to pay for it. Ida's brother, Charles Limouzin, was asked to help find the best school to help Eric prepare for better things.Gordon Bowker. George Orwell biography. p. 28 He suggested St Cyprian's School in Eastbourne, Sussex. Limouzin, who was a good golfer, came to know the school and its headmaster at the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club. The headmaster helped Blair win the scholarship to pay for his education. He also let Blair's parents pay only half the usual amount of money. However, Blair hated the school.Alaric Jacob. Sharing Orwell's Joys, but not his Fears in Christopher Norris (ed.) Inside the Myth. Lawrence and Wishart. 1984.

 World War One 
When he was eleven, Blair wrote a poem about why the British should fight Germany in World War I. After he graduated from school, he went to Burma with the British army.

 Travels 
After seeing a hanging, Blair quit the army, moved to France and sold everything he had except (some of) his clothes. He then worked as a porter, then as a teacher and then washing dishes for hotels and restaurants. He also met Soviet Communists and didn’t like them. He then moved back to London, travelled with the poor and wrote two stories. 

 Name 
After writing those stories, he wrote a book called Down and Out in Paris and London and used the name George Orwell. 

 Before the Civil War 
Orwell then became a teacher, wrote the novel Burmese Days, and wrote the novel A Clergyman’s daughter. He also quit being a teacher and married Eileen O’Shaughnessy. Orwell then wrote the novel Keep the Apsidistra Flying which criticized capitalism. 

 Spanish Civil War 
Orwell went to Spain to fight against Franco. Then Stalin said that the Trotskyists were trying to help Franco so the Spanish Secret police started trying to capture or kill Orwell and the others. Orwell ran away to escape and hated Stalin because of what happened. 

 Wigan Pier 
Orwell then wrote The Road to Wigan Pier and said that people should support Socialism.

 Homage to Catalonia 
Orwell then wrote a book called Homage to Catalonia about the Spanish Civil War. In it, he said Stalin was really bad. His publisher Victor Gollancz said that he wouldn’t publish it, so Orwell said Gollancz was “part of the Communism racket” and found another publisher. 

 World War Two 
Orwell tried to join the British army again when World War II started and ended up working for the BBC. He quit after they asked him to say Stalin wasn’t that bad and he wrote Animal Farm. Four different publishers said they wouldn’t publish it. Then the war ended and Orwell published it. He also wrote an essay on the Cold War. 

 1984 
Orwell then wrote 1984 and said it was about Communism in English speaking countries. 

 Death 
Orwell died of tuberculosis in 1950

 Bibliography 
 Novels 
 Burmese Days (1934)
 A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
 Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
 Coming Up for Air (1939)
 Animal Farm (1945)
 Nineteen Eighty-Four (8 June 1949'Bowker, p. 383, 399.)

 Essays 

 Notes on Nationalism (1945)
A Nice Cup of Tea (1946)

 Books based on his life 
 Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
 The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
 Homage to Catalonia (1938)

 Poems 
 "Romance"
 "A Little Poem"
 "Awake! Young Men of England"
 "Kitchener"
 "Our Minds are Married, But we are Too Young"
 "The Pagan"
 "The Lesser Evil"
 "Poem From Burma"

 References 
 Anderson, Paul (ed). Orwell in Tribune: 'As I Please' and Other Writings. Methuen/Politico's 2006. 
 Bounds, Philip. Orwell and Marxism: The Political and Cultural Thinking of George Orwell. I.B. Tauris. 2009. 
 Bowker, Gordon. George Orwell. Little Brown. 2003. 
 Caute, David. Dr. Orwell and Mr. Blair, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 
 Crick, Bernard. George Orwell: A Life. Penguin. 1982. 
 Flynn, Nigel. George Orwell. The Rourke Corporation, Inc. 1990. 
 Hitchens, Christopher. Why Orwell Matters. Basic Books. 2003. 
 Hollis, Christopher. A Study of George Orwell: The Man and His Works. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co. 1956.
 Larkin, Emma. Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop. Penguin. 2005. 
 Lee, Robert A, Orwell's Fiction. University of Notre Dame Press, 1969. LC 74-75151
 Leif, Ruth Ann, Homage to Oceania. The Prophetic Vision of George Orwell. Ohio State U.P. [1969]
 Meyers, Jeffery. Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation. W.W.Norton. 2000. 
 Newsinger, John. Orwell's Politics. Macmillan. 1999. 
Rodden, John (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell. Cambridge. 2007. 
 Shelden, Michael. Orwell: The Authorized Biography. HarperCollins. 1991. 
 Smith, D. & Mosher, M. Orwell for Beginners. 1984. London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative.
 Taylor, D. J. Orwell: The Life. Henry Holt and Company. 2003. 
 West, W. J. The Larger Evils. Edinburgh: Canongate Press. 1992.  (Nineteen Eighty-Four – The truth behind the satire.)
 West, W. J. (ed.) George Orwell: The Lost Writings. New York: Arbor House. 1984. 
 Williams, Raymond, Orwell, Fontana/Collins, 1971
 Woodcock, George. The Crystal Spirit. Little Brown. 1966. 
 Orwell's meeting with dos Passos in 1937 Barcelona referenced in Stephen Koch, “The Breaking Point: Hemingway, dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles”

 References 

Category:1903 births
Category:1950 deaths
Category:Deaths from tuberculosis
Category:English novelists
Category:English poets
Category:Infectious disease deaths in England
Category:People of British India
Category:Pen names
Category:Democratic socialists
Category:Anti-communists