About the Author

George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair. The son of a civil servant, he was born in India in 1903. His family having moved to England in 1907, he commenced studies at Eton in 1917, where he contributed to several college magazines.

Orwell served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. Years of poverty followed.

In 1936 he fought for the Republicans in the Spanish civil war, and was wounded. He was admitted to a sanitorium in 1938. During World War II, Orwell served in the British Home Guard, and subsequently (from 1941 to 1943) worked for the BBC Eastern Service. He was the literary editor of the Tribune, and contributed to the Observer and the Manchester Evening News.

George Orwell is most famous for his books Animal Farm (published in 1945) and 1984 (published in 1949). He died in London, England in January of 1950.