• George Orwell was a British journalist, author, and critic.

• Fast Facts:

  1. Given Name: Eric Arthur Blair
  2. Born: June 25, 1903
  3. Birthplace: Motihari, India
  4. Died: January 21, 1950
  5. Literary Genre: Satire
  6. Fought in Spanish Civil War
  7. Critic: Stalinism, Capitalism
  8. Endorsed Democratic Socialism

• Career

  The man who would be known as George Orwell first formed his critical opinions of imperialism and tyranny while serving as a policeman in Burma from 1922 to 1927. He resigned to become a writer, but existed in poverty until he sold A Hanging and took a job as a teacher. Orwell worked as a journalist and essayist until he felt compelled to fight against the fascist Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War in 1936. He was nearly killed in the experience, but his attitudes and ideals were set and his most famous works would follow. He wrote Animal Farm in protest of Josef Stalin, and 1984, his last major work, followed shortly before his death of tuberculosis at the age of 46.

• Notable Works

  • 1931: A Hanging
  • 1932: Down and Out in Paris and London
  • 1945: Animal Farm
  • 1949: Nineteen Eighty-Four

• Orwell's Rules For Writers

  1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
  2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
  3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  4. Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
  5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
  6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

• Timeline

  • 1917: Transfers from Wellington College to Eton College
  • 1922: Joins Indian Imperial Police
  • 1927: Resigns from Indian Imperial Police
  • 1928: Moves to Paris to become writer
  • 1929: Takes job as dishwasher at Paris hotel
  • 1934: Burmese Days published, based on experiences in Burma
  • 1935: The Clergyman's Daughter, novel
  • 1936: Short story Shooting an Elephant published; Keep the Aspidistra Flying published
  • 1936: Marries Eileen O'Shaughnessy, June 9
  • 1936: Goes to Spain to fight in Spanish Civil War in December
  • 1937: The Road to Wigan Pier
  • 1938: Homage to Catalonia
  • 1939: Coming Up for Air
  • 1941: Begins working for BBC
  • 1944: Adopts son, Richard Horatio Blair
  • 1945: Eileen O'Shaughnessy dies after reaction to anesthetic during routine surgery
  • 1949: Marries Sonia Mary Brownell
  • 1950: Dies, January 21

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Communism | Human Freedom | Capitalism | Stalinism | 1984 | Animal Farm | Democratic Socialism | Newspeak | Aldous Huxley | Dystopian Literature

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