Birthdate: 25th June 1903
Nationality: English
Bio:
George Orwell, born Eric Blair in 1903, was a British novelist, essayist, journalist and critic best known for his dystopian novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell grew up in India where his father worked for the Indian Civil Service. He attended boarding school in England and later rejected his upbringing, living as a tramp for a period and teaching himself how the other half lived. These experiences informed his desire to write about social injustice and critique oppressive societal norms.
In the 1930s, Orwell became renowned for his political writings and experience fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Witnessing the Stalinist repression of anti-Stalinist Marxists in Spain disillusioned him with the Soviet model and shaped his democratic socialist worldview. His novels Animal Farm, a fable reflecting on the Russian Revolution and corruption of power, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a frightening vision of a totalitarian surveillance state, both explored the theme of individualism against abuse of power. Published during the Cold War, they became instant classics.
Orwell produced prolific journalism, essays and literary criticism throughout his life. Though cut short by his early death at 46 from tuberculosis, his prescient writings warning of the dangers of totalitarianism, censorship, mass surveillance and the manipulation of truth have endured as some of the most important works of the 20th century. Orwell’s clear, unadorned writing style and messages of integrity, free thought and resistance against oppression continue to resonate with readers worldwide.
