Nationality: British; English
Birth Place: Motihari, Bengal, India
Death Place: London, England
Genre(s):
· Autobiographies
· Essays
· Literary criticism
· Novels
· Satires
· Social novels
Personal Information:
· Born Eric Arthur Blair, June 25, 1903, in Motihari, Bengal (now Bihar), India
· British citizen born abroad
· died of complications from tuberculosis, January 21, 1950, in London, England
· buried in All Saints churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire, England
· son of Richard Walmesley (a colonial civil servant) and Ida Mabel (Limouzin) Blair
· married Eileen O'Shaughnessy, June 9, 1936 (died, March 29, 1945)
· married Sonia Brownell (an editorial assistant), October 13, 1949
· children: (adopted) Richard Horatio.
Education:
Graduated from Eton College, 1921.
Politics:
· Self-described "Tory anarchist" during early 1930s
· "democratic Socialist" beginning in mid-1930s.
Avocational Interests:
· Fishing
· carpentry
· gardening
· raising animals
Military/Wartime Service:
Militia of Workers' Party of Marxist Unity (POUM), 1937
based in Catalonia, Spain, served on Aragon front during Spanish Civil War; became lieutenant.
Local Defence Volunteers (became Home Guard), 1940-43
served in England during World War II; became sergeant.
Memberships:
-National Union of Journalists,
-Freedom Defence Committee (vice-chair).
Occupation:
Writer
Career:
-Writer.
-Police officer for Indian Imperial Police in Burma, 1922-27
-dishwasher in Paris, France, 1929
-The Hawthorns (private school), Hayes, Middlesex, England, teacher, 1932-33
-Frays College (private school), Uxbridge, England, teacher, 1933
-Booklovers' Corner (used book store), London, England, clerk, 1934-36
-shopkeeper in Wallington, Herfordshire, England, beginning in 1936
-British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), London, began as assistant, became producer of educational radio programs, 1941-43
-Tribune, London, literary editor, 1943-45, author of "As I Please" column, 1943- 47
-Observer, London, correspondent in France, Germany, and England, 1945.
WRITINGS PUBLISHED IN LIFETIME:
NOVELS
· Burmese Days, Harper, 1934.
· A Clergyman's Daughter, Gollancz, 1935,
· Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Gollancz, 1936,
· Coming Up for Air, Gollancz, 1939,
· Animal Farm (Book-of-the-Month Club selection), Secker & Warburg, 1945, Harcourt, 1946.
· Nineteen Eighty-Four (Book-of-the-Month Club selection), Harcourt, 1949.
NONFICTION
· Down and Out in Paris and London, Harper, 1933.
· The Road to Wigan Pier, Gollancz, 1937,
· Homage to Catalonia, Secker & Warburg, 1938,
· Inside the Whale, and Other Essays, Gollancz, 1940.
· The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (essays), Secker & Warburg, 1941.
· James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution, Socialist Book Centre (London), 1946.
· Dickens, Dali, and Others (essays), Reynal & Hitchcock, 1946 (published in England as Critical Essays, Secker & Warburg, 1946).
· The English People, Collins, 1947.
· Shooting an Elephant, and Other Essays (includes A Hanging), Harcourt, 1950.
Contributor, sometimes under name Eric Blair, of numerous articles and reviews to periodicals, including:
Adelphi
Contemporary Jewish Record
Horizon
Listener
Manchester Evening News
New English Weekly
New Statesman and Nation
Time and Tide
Partisan Review
OTHER
- Talking to India: A Selection of English-Language Broadcasts to India, (Editor, and author of introduction) E. M. Forster and others, Allen & Unwin, 1943.
- British Pamphleteers, (Editor, with Reginald Reynolds, and author of introduction)Volume 1, Wingate, 1948.
- ·The Betrayal of the Left: An Examination and Refutation of Communist Policy From October 1939 to January 1941, With Suggestions for an Alternative and an Epilogue on Political Morality, (Contributor) Victor Gollancz, John Strachey, and others, Gollancz, 1941.
- ·Victory, or Vested Interest?, (Contributor) Routledge, 1942.
