Classic Authors: George Orwell

Eric Blair, now using the pen name George Orwell, opened a shop at Wallington, Hertfordshire, in 1936. He conducted business during the morning and wrote in the afternoon. He also married Eileen O’Shaughnessy. Soon after, George received a commission to study the poor in northern England. The result was The Road to Wigan Pier(1936).

At the end of 1936, George traveled to Spain with the intention of writing newspaper articles on the civil war that was being fought in the country. He was drawn by the equality between the classes that he found there, and aligned himself with the militia of POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion de Marxista). He was wounded in battle, and chased down for his participation in the conflict. He finally escaped to France, but detailed his experiences in Homage to Catalonia(1938).

When World War II rolled around, George wanted to fight, but was declared unfit. In 1941, he joined the British Broadcasting Corporation as the talks producer in the Indian section of the eastern service. He also served in the Home Guard. In 1943, he left the BBC and began work on Animal Farm. One year later, he and his wife adopted a son, but Eileen died only a year later. Toward the end of the war, George served as a war correspondent for several newspapers.

In late 1945, George Orwell settled on the island of Jura, off the Scottish coast. Here, he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four(1949). He died soon after on January 21, 1950, in London.

Sources:

George Orwell at Generation Terrorist http://www.generationterrorists.com/bio/...

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gorwell.htm

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