George Orwell

British writer and journalist

Photo by: Cassowary Colorizations · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Born:June 25, 1903

Died:January 21, 1950

Age at death:46

Manner of death:Natural Causes

Cause of death:Tuberculosis

Zodiac Sign:Cancer

Height:1.88 m (6′2″)

Children:1

Born in:Motihari, India

Residence:British rule in Myanmar, British Raj

Buried in:United Kingdom

Languages:French, English

Writer Screenwriter Essayist Book Dealer Opinion Journalist Journalist Literary Critic Novelist War Correspondent Poet Autobiographer Police Officer

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Links

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Famous For

Notable Work

Nineteen Eighty-FourAnimal FarmHomage to CataloniaDown and Out in Paris and LondonBurmese Days

Books

Nineteen Eighty-FourAnimal FarmHomage to CataloniaDown and Out in Paris and LondonBurmese Days

Awards

Hugo Award for Best Novella (1996)Retro Hugo Award for Best Novella (1996)Prometheus Award - Hall of Fame

George Orwell

British writer and journalist

Biography

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both authoritarian communism and fascism), and support of democratic socialism. Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in industrial Northern England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture. Orwell's work remains influential in both popular and political culture, with the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—becoming part of the English language, as are many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “George Orwell”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“This means no more than vae victis - woe to the creed that is not backed by machine-guns!”

— Review of The Two Carlyles by Osbert Burdett, in The Adelphi (March 1931)

“As to a pseudonym, a name I always use when tramping etc is P. S. Burton, but if you don't think this sounds a probable kind of name, what about Kenneth Miles, George Orwell, H. Lewis Allways. I rather favour George Orwell.”

— Letter to Leonard Moore (19 November 1932); The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, George Orwell: An Age Like This, 1920–1940, Editors: Sonia Orwell, Ian Angus. p. 106.

“Man is not a Yahoo, but he is rather like a Yahoo and needs to be reminded of it from time to time.”

— Review of Tropic of Cancer, in New English Weekly (14 November 1935)

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "George Orwell", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (1903 - 1950), an English writer born in British India. On of his first jobs was acting as imperial police officer in Burma, but resigned to it in 1928, because of anticolonial and antiracist feelings. Almost ten years later, in 1936, he moved to Spain and joined the Republican militia, serving in the surroundings of Osca as second lieutenant during the first steps of the Spanish Civil War. After being wounded at Teruel, he fought against communist insurgents trying to overthrow their political opponents in Barcelona. Disappointed by the position of the Republic and the rise of Stalinism, Orwell returned to England and never joined the International Brigades. His dairy was lost in Spain, as well as his camera and photographs, but he would later write Homage to Catalonia, as a report of the conflict. With the outcome of World War II, he was rejected for military service; so he headed the Indian service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The next years he would write his most famous works, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. #historiansunion #colorizersunion #colored #colorized #colourised #colorization #colourisation #color #history #worldwar2 #ww2 #wwii #georgeorwell #literature

George Orwell and Eileen O’Shaughnessy with members of the ILP unit on the Aragon Front outside Huesca, 13th March 1937

Piazza XXVII Aprile (Carrara)

Back of an identity card belonging to George Orwell in Morocco

Front of an identity card belonging to George Orwell in Morocco

Barnsley Civic Trust blue plaque marking a building that George Orwell lodged in while in Barnsley.

Marsz antyrządowych demonstrantów w stronę sejmu.

Picture of George Orwell which appears in an old accreditation for the BNUJ.

77 Parliament Hill, Hampstead, London NW3 2TH. George Orwell lived in a flat in this building for several months in 1935. There is a plaque above the front door, stating: "George Orwell (1903-1950) writer lived here. Erected by the Hampstead Plaque Fund"