George Orwell

George Orwell (1903-1950) has been called the most influential and important voices of the century. Certainly his two attacks on totalitarianism-Animal Farm and 1984-have ranked amongst the best work in satire and permanently changed our lexicon.

Born Eric Blair in India to two members of the Indian Civil Service, Orwell was educated at Eton College in England. His education was sketchy-his teachers claimed he didn't work and he graduated low in his class. Rather than go on to university, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial police in Burma. At age 24 he finally sat down to teach himself to write-a profession he had wanted to pursue since he was only a handful of years old.

Like many writers, Orwell started slow and it took decades before he received the acclaim and public acknowledgement that he has since enjoyed. In 1938, Orwell contracted tuberculosis a disease that would follow him for the rest of his life. His wife would die in an operation the year after they adopted a son. Orwell settled on an island off Scotland called Jura and remarried. The climate was hard on his tuberculosis and Orwell later said that 1984 wouldn't have been so dark and gloomy if he hadn't himself been in such pain with his illness.

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--B. Redman