Biography for
George Orwell More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

25 June 1903, Motihari, Bihar, British India [now India]

Date of Death

21 January 1950, London, England, UK (tuberculosis)

Birth Name

Eric Arthur Blair

Height

6' 2" (1.88 m)

Mini Biography

Born the son of an Opium Agent in Bengal, Eric Blair was educated in England (Eton 1921). The joined the British Imperial Police in Burma, serving until 1927. He then travelled around England and Europe, doing various odd jobs to support his writing. By 1935 he had adopted the 'pen-name' of 'George Orwell' and had written his first novels. He married in 1936. In 1937, he and his wife fought against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He produced some 3000 pages of essays and newspaper articles as well as several books and programs for the BBC.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>

Spouse

Sonia Brownell	(13 October 1949 - 21 January 1950) (his death)
Eileen Maud O Shaugnessy'	(9 June 1936 - 29 March 1945) (her death) 1 adopted son

Trivia

He is buried in the graveyard of Sutton Courtenay church, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, although he has no connection with the village. He had left instructions that he wanted to be buried in the nearest graveyard to wherever he died. However he died in central London and none of the London churches had space for him to be buried. Fearing that his body may have to be cremated instead, his widow asked each of her friends around the country to approach their local vicar to see if their church had room. This is how he comes to be buried in Sutton Courtenay - purely by chance. His grave bears just the words "Eric Arthur Blair / Born June 25th 1903 / Died January 21st 1950" with no mention being made of his more well-known pen-name or even the fact that he had been a famous author.

One adopted son, Richard Horatio.

He provided the British government a list of people he suspected to be Communist sympathizers in the late 40s. He singled out Charlie Chaplin, actor Michael Redgrave and novelist J.B. Priestley

Recorded propaganda broadcasts for Great Britain during World War II that were broadcast in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. In these broadcasts, which were a mixture of news, opinion and sparring against the propaganda of the pro-Japanese Indian rebel Subhash Chandra Bose, one can see the ideological underpinnings of his novels 1984 and Animal Farm -- an aversion to tyranny, anyone's tyranny.

Wrote Animal Farm after his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, in which he fought alongside Trotskyite troops in the Republican (Loyalist) forces. At this time (1936-39), Stalin was deep instigating the Great Purge in the Soviet Union, and so any followers of Trotsky were suspect. He barely escaped from Spain with his life, and ever after was a committed foe of Communism, particularly Stalinism. Animal Farm is a barely-disguised metaphor for Stalin's propaganda-laced Soviet Russia, as well as his later novel 1984.

Chose the title of his magnum opus "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by inverting the last two digits of the year he completed the manuscript (1948).

Personal Quotes

Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

He who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past.

No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.

No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid.... Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings." [1950] "One must choose between God and Man, and all "radicals" and "progressives", from the mildest liberal to the most extreme anarchist, have in effect chosen Man." "As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents." "One defeats a fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one's intelligence." "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." "Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

One must choose between God and Man, and all "radicals" and "progressives", from the mildest liberal to the most extreme anarchist, have in effect chosen Man.

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.

One defeats a fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one's intelligence.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.

England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during 'God Save the King' than of stealing from the poorbox.