George Orwell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids George Orwell
Orwell's press card portrait, 1943
Born	Eric Arthur Blair (1903-06-25)25 June 1903 Motihari, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	21 January 1950(1950-01-21) (aged 46) University College Hospital, London, England, United Kingdom
Resting place	All Saints' Church, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England
Pen name	George Orwell
Occupation	Novelist and essayist, journalist and literary critic
Alma mater	Eton College
Genre	Dystopia, roman à clef, satire
Subjects	Anti-fascism, anti-Stalinism, democratic socialism, literary criticism, journalism, and polemic
Notable works	Animal Farm Nineteen Eighty-Four Homage to Catalonia Down and Out in Paris and London The Road to Wigan Pier
Years active	1928–1950
Spouse	Eileen O'Shaughnessy ​ ​ (m. 1936; died 1945)​ Sonia Brownell ​ (m. 1949)​
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George Orwell (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English writer. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair. He used the name George Orwell for his novels.

He was born in India during the British Empire's rule of India. He is best known for two novels that he wrote in the late 1940s, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. In those works, he said that totalitarianism, especially Stalinism, was very bad.

Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War with the antifascist troops. These troops were against the dictatorship of fascist governments.

Orwell died of tuberculosis in London.

Early life

Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903, in India. His great-grandfather Charles Blair had been a rich gentleman who had married Lady Mary Fane, and he was supported by money from slave plantations in Jamaica. His grandfather, Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, was a clergyman. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Indian Civil Service. His mother, Ida Mabel Blair, grew up in Burma. Eric had two sisters. Marjorie, his first sister, was five years older than he was. Avril was five years younger. When Eric was one year old, Ida took him to England.

Eric grew up with his mother and sisters. Except for a short visit, he did not see his father again until 1912. The family moved to Shiplake before World War I. There, Eric became friends with the Buddicom family, especially Jacintha Buddicom. They read poetry and hoped to become famous writers. At this time, he also liked fishing and watching birds with Jacintha's brother and sister.

When he was five, Eric was sent to a convent school where Marjorie went to. It was a Catholic convent. His mother wanted him to go to public school, but his family was not rich enough to pay for it. Ida's brother, Charles Limouzin, was asked to help find the best school to help Eric prepare for better things. He suggested St Cyprian's School in Eastbourne, Sussex. Limouzin, who was a good golfer, came to know the school and its headmaster at the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club. The headmaster helped Blair win the scholarship to pay for his education. He also let Blair's parents pay only half the usual amount of money. However, Blair hated the school.

Novels

• Burmese Days (1934)
• A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
• Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
• Coming Up for Air (1939)
• Animal Farm (1945)
• Nineteen Eighty-Four (8 June 1949;)

Books based on his life

• Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
• The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
• Homage to Catalonia (1938)

Poems

• "Romance"
• "A Little Poem"
• "Awake! Young Men of England"
• "Kitchener"
• "Our Minds are Married, But we are Too Young"
• "The Pagan"
• "The Lesser Evil"
• "Poem From Burma"

Images for kids

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  Orwell's birthplace in Motihari, Bihar, India.

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  Blair family home at Shiplake, Oxfordshire

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  Blair's time at St. Cyprian inspired his essay "Such, Such Were the Joys".

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  The blue house on the right was Blair's 1927 lodgings in Portobello Road, London

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  Rue du Pot de Fer on the Left Bank in the 5th arrondissement, where Blair lived in Paris

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  Southwold Pier in Southwold. Orwell wrote A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) in the town, basing the fictional town of Knype Hill partly on Southwold.

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  The pen name George Orwell was inspired by the River Orwell in the English county of Suffolk.

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  English Heritage blue plaque in Kentish Town, London where Orwell lived from August 1935 until January 1936.

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  A former warehouse at Wigan Pier is named after Orwell.

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  No 2 Kits Lane, Wallington, Hertfordshire, Orwell's residence c. 1936–1940

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  The square in Barcelona renamed in Orwell's honour

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  Laurence O'Shaughnessy's former home, the large house on the corner, 24 Crooms Hill, Greenwich, London

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  Orwell spoke on many BBC and other broadcasts, but no recordings are known to survive.

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  Barnhill on the Isle of Jura, Scotland. Orwell completed Nineteen Eighty-Four while living in the farmhouse.

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  One of the Animal Farm cartoon strips produced for the Cold War anti-communist department of the British Foreign Office, the IRD

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  University College Hospital in London where Orwell died

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  Orwell's grave in All Saints' parish churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire

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  Statue of George Orwell outside Broadcasting House, headquarters of the BBC

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  Orwell's time at Eton College was formative in his attitude and his later career as a writer.

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  Orwell was an atheist and a robust critic of Christianity. Nevertheless, he was sentimentally attached to church services, and was buried in All Saints' parish churchyard in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire.